Electronic spectacles

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to spectacles, systems and methods for visibility enhancement, including by glare suppression. The spectacles, systems and methods for visibility enhancement includes spectacles and a spectacle lens having a liquid crystal cell (LC), the transmission (TR) of which may be varied by a suitable control and the liquid crystal cell (LC) designed so that the transmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) may be switched between high and low transmission states. The liquid crystal cell (LC) includes a control for regulating the times of the state of high transmission (T on ) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) such that the temporal position of the times of the high transmission state (T on ) within a period of times of the high transmission state (T on ) and times of the low transmission state (T off ) may be altered continuously or discontinuously; and/or the duration of a period of times of the high transmission state (T on ) and times of the low transmission state (T off ) may be altered continuously or discontinuously. Such changes may be determined by a secret coding key.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to electronic spectacles and systems and methodsfor visibility enhancement, including by glare suppression.

STATE OF THE ART

The light intensity passing through a light modulator may beelectrically controlled with the aid of diverse liquid crystal cells(TN, STN, Fe-LC, etc.) that are available on the market in such a waythat at least two states are reached, namely permeable transparent orimpermeable dark—as is the case with current active 3D television orcinema spectacles (so-called shutter goggles).

According to this basic idea, attempts were already made in the 1960s todevelop “electronic sunglasses” in order to offer the wearer of suchglasses a variable transmission.

Some known electronic sunglasses operate with a pure control (instead ofregulation), i.e. the photosensors lie on the outside of the spectacles,so that only the brightness that is incident on the spectacles from theoutside is measured (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,256 or DE 102012 217 326 A1). Accordingly, a characteristic line, which is onlybased on pure experience values, correspondingly switches an LCD tolight or dark.

In addition, there are often too few sensors whose reception directionis also non-specific (the sensors point forward or towards the sky).This often leads to completely wrong and even contrary, reactions of theglasses. For example, if the wearer looks into a dark area ofobservation (dark corner), while at the same time the spectacles arecaught by a stray beam of sunlight (through chance reflections onobjects or moving leaves in the forest which have a fine dark pattern),the LC is dark, although it should actually be bright because the wearerwants to see the dark area.

Electronic systems for suppressing glare with the aim of visualenhancement have been around for more than 80 years (see, for example,U.S. Pat. No. 2,066,680 A). In this patent of 1934, the light of one'sown headlights is modulated into a rectangular signal (along the timeaxis) by means of rotating mechanical slits or lamellar discs(“choppers”), while a completely identical slit or lamellar discperforms exactly the same in front of the field of view of the user(visor), i.e. with precisely the same frequency and phase position,wherein the outside world is perceived by the user synchronously withthe modulated headlamp light.

If the user's visor, for example, is closed for 50% of the time(pulse-pause ratio=1:1), 50% of the unwanted light (e.g. low-levelsunlight) is suppressed, and the visibility of the object to be viewedis augmented.

Later, electronically-controllable light modulators replaced mechanicallight modulators, in particular in the form of liquid crystal cells,while the light sources became also increasingly faster and more easilycontrollable electronically (see, for example, DE 101 34 770 A1, DE 2001 086 A, WO 2013/143 998 A2).

Object

The object of the invention is to provide spectacles and systems andmethods, which provide visual improvements for the spectacle wearerunder different conditions.

Solution

This object is achieved by the subject matter of the independent claims.Advantageous further developments of the subject matter of theindependent claims are characterized in the subclaims. The wording ofall claims is hereby incorporated by reference into the content of thisdescription.

In the following sections, different aspects are described which solvethe problem or contribute to its solution. It will be clear to a personskilled in the art that almost all of these different aspects may becombined with one another.

Eye-Tracker

To achieve the object, spectacles with at least one eye are proposed fora wearer. The spectacles have at least one spectacle lens, wherein theat least one spectacle lens has a liquid crystal cell, the transmissionof which may be varied by a suitable control. Furthermore, thespectacles have an eye tracker, which may determine the viewingdirection of the eye. Furthermore, there is at least one sensor formeasuring the brightness of the visible light incident thereon, whereinthe sensor is arranged on the eye-side of the spectacle lens, throughwhich the brightness through the at least one spectacle lens may bemeasured, and

-   -   an imaging system with a camera, or    -   at least three sensors that span a coordinate system, or    -   a compound eye.

An electronic compound eye consists of many individual eyes, similar tothe term “ommatidia” used in biology for the description of a compoundeye of flying insects, but consisting of electrical photosensors, whichare again positioned at the lower end of light-conducting funnels(without lenses), or, respectively, with an upstream micro-lens or acombination of both (funnel and micro-lens) (see, for example, EP0813079 A2).

The at least one sensor can determine the brightness of the visiblelight from the viewing direction of the eye which is determined by theeye tracker.

The spectacles also have a closed-loop control circuit for regulatingthe transmission of the liquid crystal cell, wherein a setpoint value isset for the brightness at the eye, and wherein the control loop uses thebrightness measured by the sensor in the viewing direction of the eye asthe actual value.

With such spectacles, the brightness may be adjusted quickly andprecisely to the glare coming from the actual viewing direction of thespectacle wearer, for example when a car driver is approaching anothercar or when a driver drives into a tunnel or drives out of a tunnel on asunny day.

However, today, in the context of extreme miniaturization and “wearableelectronics”, it is possible to implement such powerful and safe systemsfor visual improvement by means of miniature electronics, which may alsobe easily and simply integrated into spectacles.

In order to extend the scope of the spectacles, it is advisable not toadjust the transmissivity of the liquid crystal cell of the spectaclesto a suitable gray scale, but to switch the spectacles between a lighttransmitting period and a light blocking period in as short a sequenceas possible. In order that the human eye perceives as little as possibleof this switching, a cycle (period) of a transmitting period and ablocking period should last a maximum of one twenty-fourth ( 1/24) of asecond.

Such systems work particularly well when a person no longer perceivesthe regulation, i.e. working with cycle times above the critical flickerfrequency (CFF) of approximately 60 Hz.

To achieve this, the liquid crystal cell should be so designed that itcan change its transmission from 90% to 10% and from 10% to 90% in amaximum of 10 ms.

If such a liquid crystal cell is used, the transmission of the liquidcrystal cell may be switched between high and low transmission states.For this purpose, there must be means for controlling or regulating thetimes of the states of high and low transmission of the liquid crystalcell, as well as the change between these two states. The regulation orclosed-loop control circuit is appropriately designed in such a way thatthe times of the state of high transmission become shorter (pulse widthmodulation, PWM) with increasing brightness of the visible lightincident on the at least one sensor.

The control is even more precise and even more gentle for the eyes ofthe spectacle wearer if the control circuit is so designed that it cantake into account a user-specific eye/retina sensitivity curve forweighting the brightness when determining the brightness from theviewing direction of the eye.

The user-specific eye/retina sensitivity curve takes into account e.g.the age of the spectacle wearer, other general and/or individualeye-specific parameters, in particular with respect to the angle ofincidence, but also with respect to other light-technical variableswhich have an influence on the perception, e.g. brightness, distance ofthe light source or light intensity or light strength (light flux perangle of steradia), illumination level, their respective absolutemagnitudes such as threshold at the eye, light flux, size of theinterference source (point vs. surface), color or spectral distributionof the source and its temporal variation, presetting of the eye(photoptic vs. scotopic vision, etc.).

These sensitivity curves may be determined heuristically and logically,but are usually determined empirically, as for example used and analyzedin: Douglas Mace, Philip Garvey, Richard J. Porter, Richard Schwab andWerner Adrian: “Counter-measures for Reducing the Effects of HeadlightGlare”; Prepared for: The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, Washington,D.C., December 2001.

The aforementioned sensitivity curves of the human eye are stored asweighting factors in various tables (lookup table—LUT) or as acalculable formula—at least in such a way that in the closed-loopcontrol circuit of the system, comprising an internal sensor, amicrocontroller and the pre-set setpoint value, these weighting factorsare incorporated in real time into the setting signal to set thetransmission of the liquid crystal cell.

For example, a formula by Adrian and Bhanji (Adrian, W. and Bhanji, A.(1991) “Fundamentals of disability glare. A formula to describe straylight in the eye as a function of the glare angle and age.” Proceedingsof the First International Symposium on Glare, Orlando, Fla., pp.185-194) for the determination of the “impossible visibility andrecognizability of objects in the case of disability glare”, takes intoaccount the dependence on the angle of incidence of the light in the eyeunder which there is progressively no longer recognition.

Example: If incident light falls directly perpendicularly to the eye,the glare is highest (maximum in the weight formula). After the eyetracker has determined the direction of view (vector ET(x,y,z)), and theinternal sensor and/or the external sensor has determined the directionof the incident light (vector glare (x,y,z)), the microcontroller cancheck whether these two vectors are collinear, i.e. have the samedirection, and accordingly evaluate the maximum with the aforementionedweight curve. If, for example, the weight curve is stored as an LUT,then the latter moves correspondingly virtually back and forth in thememory of the microcontroller with the viewing direction vectorET(x,y,z) of the eye movement. If it is stored as a formula, the vectoris correspondingly converted into an angle.

As a result, the sensitivity curves need no longer be made as specialpre-lenses (for example, individual free-form plastic lenses) whichcorrespondingly “weight” the light before it hits a photosensor.Weight-bearing lenses, or even moving lenses, which reproduce thesensitivity of the retina, may be dispensed with, since everything isrepresented purely in software, while all sensors are rigidly mounted.

The fact that the spectacles have a spectacle frame that seals the eyeassociated with the at least one spectacle lens in a light-tight manneragainst the ambient light, is particularly gentle for the eye andresults in particularly precise regulation.

The setting of the setpoint value of the control circuit at an averagebrightness in the range of 20 to 400 lx (Lux) has proved to beparticularly gentle for the eye. Such a value allows control to aconstant brightness for the eye of the spectacle wearer when theexternal brightness changes from very bright down to the setpoint valueor vice versa, for example when a car enters or leaves a tunnel on asummer day. The changes in the brightness, or the illuminationintensity, may be a factor of 1000 or more at such a moment.

The spectacle wearer is not exposed to these very fast brightnessfluctuations. The latter are always balanced by the control of thespectacles.

The entrance into a dark tunnel or dark shadow area (forest etc.) on abright sunny day is a typical application. Since the setpoint value sethere during the day corresponds to dark sunglasses, the eye is alwaysadapted to the dark and prepared from the outset, so that upon enteringthe dark area, the spectacle lens only needs to be regulated inreal-time to be more transparent and clear (open) in order to be able tosee immediately in the dark. The dark adaption time of the human eyerequired without these spectacles is about 30 seconds, wherein this isthus reduced to a fraction of a second (for example, 10 ms) so that onemay immediately see in the dark. Exactly the reverse occurs upon exitingthe tunnel back into the light.

Further control possibilities, which are described below, becomeavailable if the spectacle lens has at least one further brightnesssensor which is arranged on the side of the spectacle remote from theeye (external sensor) to determine the brightness of the ambient light.

For example, the setpoint value of the control circuit may then bechanged as a function of the brightness of the ambient light, whereinsuch a change of the setpoint value is slower by a factor of at leastten than the control of the transmission of the liquid crystal cell, andthus should take place so that the eye of the spectacle wearer may adaptwithout difficulty to this change.

In the event of sudden changes in brightness, the spectacles shouldreact within 10 μs to one second in such a way that the liquid crystalcell (LC) is set to the low transmittance state.

In extreme situations, such as the so called “disability glare”, whereinthe spectacle wearer is not able to read or see anything (see above),i.e. when an extremely strong glare occurs exactly perpendicular to theeye (below zero degrees), such as looking directly into the sun, thespectacles are completely closed, i.e. set to completely black.

Such control is not critical in that it does not matter whether one seesnothing because of the extreme glare or because the spectacles darken toblackness; however, the latter state has the advantage that the eyeremains protected and remains adapted to the dark.

After a certain period of time or a change in the direction of the eyeof the spectacle wearer, the spectacles are then slowly returned tolight.

The control of the glare suppression is even more precise, when thespectacles have two spectacle lenses for two eyes of a spectacle wearer,as well as one eye sensor on each spectacle lens for measuring thebrightness of the visible light striking the respective eye. The controlmay then be performed individually for each eye by means of a controlcircuit for each spectacle lens.

A gain in the brightness/contrast range may be achieved with suchspectacles if the setpoint values for the two eyes deviate from oneanother by 1% to 60%. In practice, typical values for the right-leftdeviations are 5%-30%. In analogy to high-dynamic range (HDR)photography, “HDR vision” may be referred to here.

Previously, such systems have been available theoretically, but onlynow, through the availability of extremely fast modulators and very fastprocessors, may intelligent and safety-relevant multi-channel real-timecontrol systems be implemented for visual enhancement, wherein the leftand right eyes are separated and/or multiple users may be included forgroup applications.

To ensure this, the control of the brightness of the visible lightincident on the one eye should be taken into account when controllingthe brightness for the other eye.

The spectacles may also be combined with a light source, which isarranged on the side of the spectacles facing away from the eye. Thelight source is then appropriately controlled depending on the viewingdirection of the spectacle wearer. In this way, darkening caused by theshuttering of the spectacles in order to avoid glare may becounteracted. For example, four LEDs are conceivable, one at each eyecorner.

The eye tracker then determines which one of the four LEDs should beenergized depending on the viewing direction—either only one LED in thedirection of view, looking outwards upwards/downwards—or two LEDscorresponding to the viewing direction—or all four LEDs while lookingstraight ahead.

Further Possibilities:

Instead of, or in addition to, four rigidly-mounted LEDs at the cornersof a pair of spectacles, any other light sources/headlights may also becontrolled in the direction of the eye with the help of the eye tracker.

For this purpose, these lamps may be pivoted electro-mechanically, in asimilar manner to the electronically pivoting curve light for motorvehicles, or in the case of pivoting 3-axis monitoring cameras, or inthe case of freely movable hand-held systems, which may be controlled bymeans of electronic or mass-bearing gimbals (gimbal or steady-cammethod), which maintain their own stable coordinate system with respectto the earth or wearer, and with respect to which, the headlamp may thenpivot in the viewing direction.

Thus, all types of LED headlights in all kinds of supports may beconsidered: car, helmet, bike, motorcycle, hand, shoulder, body, rifle,etc.

This is particularly effective when the luminance times and the luminousintensity of the light source are so controlled that the light sourceilluminates during the times of the state of high transmittance of theliquid crystal cell. In this case, the temporal integral of the productof the luminous intensity of the light source and the transmission ofthe liquid crystal cell should remain constant within a predeterminedtolerance during a change in the times of the state of hightransmission.

Such a flashing light source may, for example, be a car headlamp, whichalways illuminates the road and the environment with a constantbrightness for the driver, while the glare caused by opposing vehiclesis effectively prevented by the shuttering of the spectacles. However,other types of headlights, such as bicycle lamps, helmet lamps,flashlights, may also be used in the sense described herein.

Since the brightness detected from an external or opposing vehicleheadlights is always constant under these conditions, regardless of howthe pulse-pause ratio is regulated, such a car headlight may be easilyreplaced in the sense of a replacement strategy, or the purchase ofadditional headlights in the sense of a special accessories strategy.

It is only now possible to implement such powerful and safe systems forvisual improvement by means of powerful white light and/or RGBLED/LASER.

In addition to car headlights, the following are also conceivable aslight sources:

-   -   a light source for illumination of a human being, an optical        sensor or a camera, and/or    -   a display on the side of the spectacle lens facing away from the        eye. and/or    -   a display on the eye-side of the spectacle lens, and/or    -   a head-up display.

For example, a smartphone, tablet, laptop, cockpit display, etc. may beconsidered as displays on the side of the spectacle lens facing awayfrom the eye.

For example, “Google Glass” or “virtual reality” (“augmented reality”)displays may be used on the eye-side of the spectacle lens.

Various displays are subsumed under head-up displays (HUD), some of themon the eye-side of the spectacles, some outside the spectacles, forexample in the form of a helmet with a display. What they all have incommon is that one may look through them, but the head-up display showsadditional information.

All these displays may be read in the manner described above against thesun or other disturbing sources of glare.

The system may be perfectly combined with the systems and methods usedfor the detection of own light as described below.

In the following, individual process steps are described in more detail.The steps need not necessarily be carried out in the order indicated,while the method described may also include further steps not mentioned.

The object is also achieved by a method for controlling the brightnessof the visible light incident on at least one eye, comprising thefollowing steps:

-   -   1. Spectacles are provided, wherein they comprise:    -   1.1 at least one spectacle lens;    -   1.2 wherein the at least one spectacle lens has a liquid crystal        cell (LC) whose transmission (TR) may be varied by a suitable        control;    -   2. an eye tracker (ET) to determine the viewing direction of the        eye;    -   3. at least one sensor (IL, IR) to measure the brightness of the        visible light incident on the sensor is provided;    -   3.1 wherein the at least one sensor (IL, IR) is arranged on the        eye-side of the spectacle lens;    -   3.2 wherein the at least one sensor (IL, IR) measures the        brightness through the at least one spectacle lens;    -   3.3. wherein the at least one sensor (IL, IR) comprises    -   3.3.1 an imaging system with a camera or    -   3.3.2 at least three sensors which span a coordinate system or    -   3.3.3 a compound eye;    -   3.4 wherein the at least one sensor (IL, IR) determines the        brightness of the visible light which strikes it from the        viewing direction of the eye determined by the eye tracker (ET);    -   4. a closed-loop control circuit (MC) for controlling the        transmission of the liquid crystal cell (LC) is provided;    -   4.1 wherein a setpoint value for the brightness at the eye is        preset;    -   4.2 wherein the control circuit takes the brightness measured by        the sensor in the viewing direction of the eye as the actual        value.        Improvement of the Readability of a Display Device

In order to achieve the object, a system for the improvement ofvisibility through glare suppression is also proposed. The systemcomprises:

-   -   spectacles for a wearer with at least one eye, with    -   at least one spectacle lens, wherein the at least one spectacle        lens has a liquid crystal cell, the transmission of which may be        varied by a suitable control. The liquid crystal cell is so        designed that the transmission of the liquid crystal cell may be        switched between high and low transmission states. In this        respect, the spectacles also have corresponding means for        controlling or regulating the times of the state of high        transmission of the liquid crystal cell.

In addition, the spectacles have at least one sensor for measuring thebrightness of the visible light incident thereon, wherein the at leastone sensor is arranged on the eye-side of the spectacle lens andmeasures the brightness forwards through the spectacle lens.

A closed-loop control circuit regulates the transmission of the liquidcrystal cell. The control is so designed that the times of the state ofhigh transmission become shorter with increasing glare (pulse widthmodulation, PWM). A setpoint value is set for the brightness at the eyeof the spectacle wearer, wherein the control circuit takes thebrightness measured by the sensor as the actual value.

Further, the system comprises a display and means for controlling thelighting times and the luminous intensity of the display in order toilluminate during the times of the state of high transmission of theliquid crystal cell. In this case, the temporal integral of the productof the luminous intensity of the display and the transmission of theliquid crystal cell remains constant during a change in the times of thestate of high transmission within a predetermined tolerance.

If, for example, the brightness of the ambient light is doubled, thesystem reacts, on the one hand, with a halving of the times of the stateof high transmission of the liquid crystal cell, wherein the increasedglare is effectively compensated. At the same time, the illuminationtime of the display is shortened and its luminous intensity is doubled.As a result, the brightness of the display perceived by the spectaclewearer remains unchanged.

All these processes of switching the transmission of the liquid crystalcell and switching the display on and off, should take place with such afrequency and speed that no glare or other perceptible effects occur forthe wearer of the spectacles. This means that all the effectspotentially perceptible to the wearer should be at least 24 Hz,preferably at least 60 Hz.

In particular, the following are considered as displays:

-   -   a display on the side of the spectacle lens facing away from the        eye, and/or    -   a display on the eye-side of the spectacle lens, and/or    -   a head-up display.

A smartphone, tablet, laptop, cockpit display, etc., or a head-updisplay (HUD) may be considered as displays on the side of the spectaclelens facing away from the eye.

For example, “Google Glass” or “virtual reality” (“augmented reality”)may be used as a display on the eye-side of the spectacle lens.

All of these displays may be read out in the manner described, even inthe event of strong solar radiation or even in the event of direct glarefrom the sun as a backlight.

Preferably, the spectacles comprise an eye tracker, which may determinethe viewing direction of the eye. In such a case, the at least onesensor comprises:

-   -   an imaging system with a camera, or    -   at least three sensors that span a coordinate system;    -   a compound eye.

An electronic compound eye consists of many individual eyes, similar tothe term “ommatidia” used in biology in the description of the compoundeye of flying insects, but consisting of electrical photosensors, whichare again located at the lower end of light-conducting funnels (withoutlens), or with respectively a preceding micro-lens, or a combination ofboth (funnel and micro-lens) (see, e.g. EP 0813079 A2).

The at least one sensor can determine the brightness of the visiblelight from the viewing direction of the eye, which may be determined bythe eye tracker. The control circuit may then use the brightnessmeasured by the sensor in the viewing direction of the eye as the actualvalue.

In the case of such spectacles, the brightness may be adjusted quicklyand precisely to the glare coming from the actual direction of viewingof the spectacle wearer, for example if a car driver is approachinganother car and irrespective of whether the driver looks in thedirection of the opposing vehicle or not. Since the representation ofthe display is always adapted to the glare suppression performed by thespectacles, the readability of the display is never impaired.

The object is also achieved by a method which corresponds to anoperation according to the principles of the described system.

Coding

The object is further achieved by a system for the improvement ofvisibility by means of glare suppression. The system comprises:

-   -   spectacles for a wearer with at least one eye, with    -   at least one spectacle lens;    -   wherein the at least one spectacle lens comprises a liquid        crystal cell whose transmission may be varied by a suitable        control;    -   wherein the liquid crystal cell is so designed that the        transmission of the liquid crystal cell may be switched between        high and low transmission states.

Further, the spectacles comprise means for controlling the times of thestate of high transmission of the liquid crystal cell.

In addition, the system comprises a light source having means forcontrolling or regulating the luminance times and the luminous intensityof the light source so that it illuminates during the times of the stateof high transmission of the liquid crystal cell. The temporal integralof the product of the luminous intensity of the light source and thetransmission of the liquid crystal cell remains constant during a changein the times of the state of high transmission within a predefinedtolerance.

The regulation or control of the liquid crystal cell and the lightsource is so designed that the temporal position of the times of thestate of high transmission may be changed continuously ordiscontinuously within a period of times of the state of hightransmission and the state of low transmission. And/or the duration of aperiod of the times of the state of high transmittance and the state oflow transmission may be changed continuously or discontinuously.

These changes are determined by a secret coding key.

All these processes for the switching of the transmission of the liquidcrystal cell and the switching on and off of the light source shouldtake place with such a frequency and speed that no glare or any otherperceptible effects occur for the wearer of the spectacles. All theeffects potentially perceptible to the wearer should be at least 24 Hz,preferably at least 60 Hz.

Such coding opens up a wide range of possibilities, especially in themilitary and security sector (police, fire brigade, etc.). It makes itdifficult for anyone not having the coding key, e.g. to eliminate glarethrough the light source.

In addition, the coding offers the possibility that various groups,whether they are opponents or other teams with a similar task, eachreceive an individually secret exclusive view via coded sources oflight, in particular if outside users with very similar overall systems(visor and light source) are active at night in the same spatial region.

For the automatic control of the glare suppression, the spectaclespreferably have at least one sensor for measuring the brightness of thevisible light incident on the sensor. The sensor is arranged on theeye-side of the spectacle lens and measures the brightness through theat least one spectacle lens. Furthermore, the spectacles comprise aclosed-loop control circuit for the control of the transmission of theliquid crystal cell in such a way that the times of the state of hightransmission become shorter with increasing brightness (pulse widthmodulation, PWM). A setpoint value is preset for the brightness at theeye of the spectacle wearer, wherein the control loop takes thebrightness measured by the sensor as the actual value.

The accuracy of the glare suppression may be increased, on the one hand,if the at least one sensor has an imaging system with a camera or atleast three sensors, which span a coordinate system or a compound eye.On the other hand, the spectacle also has an eye tracker, which candetermine the viewing direction of the eye. This is because the at leastone sensor can determine the brightness of the visible light which isincident upon it from the viewing direction of the eye determined by theeye tracker. And the control loop may take the brightness measured bythe sensor in the viewing direction of the eye as the actual value. Thisclearly leads to a very exact suppression of the actual glare.

It is of particular interest for safety applications if either the lightsource or an additional second light source is suitable for the dazzlingof a living being, an optical sensor or a camera. For example, the lightsource might be suitable to dazzle a night vision device, which mayalready be achieved with low intensities, e.g. from an infra-red lightsource. Military night vision systems no longer function with increasingbrightness, because the very sensitive receiver/residual lightamplifiers are “exceeded” as of a certain brightness, i.e. they fail inthe event of too much light.

Clearly, a second light source should also only illuminate during thetime of the low transmission state of the liquid crystal cell. Thisopens the possibility of blinding a criminal or opponent without beingblinded oneself.

The object is also achieved by a method which corresponds to anoperation according to the principles of the described system.

Glare Weapon

The object is further achieved by a system for dazzling a living being,an optical sensor or a camera, comprising:

-   -   spectacles for a wearer with at least one eye, with at least one        spectacle lens, wherein the at least one spectacle lens        comprises a liquid crystal cell, the transmission of which may        be varied by a suitable control. The liquid crystal cell is so        designed that the transmission of the liquid crystal cell may be        switched between states of high and low transmission. In        addition, there are means for controlling the time of the state        of high transmission of the liquid crystal cell.    -   further, the system has a light source for dazzling a living        being, an optical sensor, or a camera that illuminates during        the low transmission state of the liquid crystal cell.

The great advantage of such a system is that by means of the lightsource, a criminal or an opponent, for example, may be blinded, but thewearer of the spectacles is not dazzled because the light source onlyilluminates when the liquid crystal cell in the spectacles blocks thelight.

In addition, the blinded or to be blinded system may be behind aspecular screen (e.g. in a vehicle), or randomly reflecting objects, ormay intentionally use a mirror to deliberately return the glare back tothe transmitter. According to the current state of the art, the operatorof the glare weapon is then unprotected and could be impaired by theirown light via the reflection. In addition, team members of the same taskforce, on the right or left of the operator, could also be blinded byreflections according to the current state of the art. This also appliesto the careless and inadvertent handling of glare weapons. The proposedsystem eliminates these risks.

For example, the light source could be suitable to dazzle a night visiondevice, which may already be achieved with low intensities e.g. from aninfrared light source. Military night vision systems no longer functionwith increasing brightness, since the very sensitive receivers/residuallight amplifiers are “over-modulated” at certain brightnesses, i.e. theyfail in the event of too much light.

Such glare weapons are often also referred to as “dazzlers”, while theuse of a laser is also referred to as a “laser dazzler”.

If, in security tasks, one does not only want to blind the opponent, butin particular, e.g. on a dark night, wants to illuminate the scene withone's own spotlight for better personal orientation, the problem is thatthe extremely bright light of the dazzler fades the spotlight's ownlight so that the spotlight is no longer sufficiently visible in thedistance, i.e. in particular the specific blinded person or the blindedsystem may not be observed sufficiently well with respect to reactivebehavioral changes (surrendering, stopping, retreating, changingdirection, etc.), or relative to general data collection (reading carlicense plates, etc.) because of the fading.

Moreover, the fading is often so bright that even the environment of theblinded person or of the blinded system is no longer sufficientlyvisible when the headlight illuminates the surroundings of the dazzledopponent in order to detect, for example, suspicious changes in thescenery (active monitoring of the environment).

In order to remedy this situation, the system comprises a second lightsource and means for controlling or regulating the luminance times andthe luminous intensity of the second light source so that it shinesduring the times of the state of high transmission of the liquid crystalcell.

Such a solution allows a user of the system to illuminate a scene forthemselves while the opponent remains blinded. The second light sourceilluminates during the times when the liquid crystal cell transmits thelight. The dazzling light source only illuminates at the complementarytimes when the liquid crystal cell blocks the light. The user of thesystem is not dazzled by the glare weapons, but may illuminate andexplore the scenery using the spotlight.

In a further option, it is conceivable that the second light source is adisplay. The user of the system may then dazzle an opponent whilereading the information from the display of instruments themselvesundisturbed.

In order to prevent or at least make it difficult for an opponent to: a)synchronize the lighting times of the glare weapon with a comparablesystem and, during these times, switch the liquid crystal cell toblocking (scenario A), or even worse, b) whenever the glare weapon isoff, the opponent guesses that the spectacles of the transmitter areopen, and that they may dazzle it with his own glare weapon in this timeslot, and so the control or regulation of the liquid crystal cell and ofthe light source of the glare weapon may be so designed that thetemporal position of the times of the state of high transmission may becontinuously or discontinuously changed (phase hopping) within a periodof time of the high transmission state and the low transmission state.Alternatively, the duration of a period of high transmission times andlow transmission times may be continuously or abruptly changed(frequency hopping). It is then important that these changes bedetermined by a secret coding key. Any patterns should not be repeatedperiodically in an easily recognizable manner.

An opponent's self-protection against glare (scenario A) cannot beguaranteed with the coding in the case of sufficiently fast reactingsystems (in the sense of technological weapon equality), since theopponent is mainly only guessing the “falling out flank” of the glareweapon* (*=incomplete knowledge/information asymmetry), they cannotshoot with their own (opposing) glare weapon into all open time slots ofthe spectacles with continuous safety (maximum energy), especially ifthe pulse patterns are no longer synchronous and complementary viacoding, but “jump illogically”, i.e. a short dropout at the flare weapon(falling light flank) does not necessarily mean that the spectacles ofthe transmitter are subsequently open, especially since a 100 Hz systemhas at least 100 time slots per second, and not everyone has to use this“consistently logically”.

In addition, the laser dazzler together with the lamp may produce morethan just a hopping “drop out” or “light pulse” per cycle (especiallybecause lasers and LED lamps may now be modulated extremely quickly,e.g. by a factor 100 times faster than the LC shutter=10 kHz instead of100 Hz. This inevitably leads to deception and confusion of theopponent, especially if not every “dropout” or “light pulse” leads to asynchronous opening of the spectacles. The aforementioned secret codingmay also be applied “systemically”, because the “publicly transmittedinformation” (glare weapon dropout or spotlight pulse) then no longerexists in a precise logical connection with the opening times of theirown spectacles (or sensor).

The system may be perfectly combined with the systems and methodsdescribed below for color coding of the sight of various people.

The object is also achieved by a method which corresponds to anoperation according to the principles of the described system.

Own Light Detection

The object is further achieved by a system for the improvement ofvisibility by glare suppression with spectacles for a wearer with atleast one eye. The spectacles have at least one spectacle lens, whereinthe at least one spectacle lens has a liquid crystal cell, thetransmission of which may be varied by a suitable control. The liquidcrystal cell is so designed that the transmission of the liquid crystalcell may be switched between states of high and low transmission.

The system further comprises at least one sensor for measuring thebrightness of the visible light incident on the at least one sensor,wherein the at least one sensor is preferably arranged on the side ofthe spectacle lens facing away from the eye.

In addition, the system comprises a closed-loop control circuit for thecontrol of the transmission of the liquid crystal cell, wherein asetpoint value for the brightness is preset at the eye of the spectaclewearer, and the control circuit takes the brightness measured by the atleast one sensor as the actual value. In this case, the regulation orcontrol is so designed that the times of the state of high transmissionbecome shorter with increasing glare.

Finally, the system also includes a light source with means forcontrolling or regulating the luminance times and the luminous intensityof the light source so that this illuminates during the times of thestate of high transmission of the liquid crystal cell. The temporalintegral of the product of the luminous intensity of the light sourceand the transmission of the liquid crystal cell remains constant duringa change in the times of the state of high transmission within apredetermined tolerance.

In order to distinguish the cause of the light detected by the at leastone sensor, i.e. the question as to whether it is light from extraneouslight sources such as a dazzling light source, or light from one's ownlight source, it is crucial that the at least one sensor detects thebrightness of the visible light incident on it only in the times of thelow transmission state. This allows the desired distinction, since themeasured brightness may then only originate from extraneous lightsources.

Such a system prevents dazzling from its own light source.

The system may be perfectly combined with the above-described systemsand methods for the suppression of glare with the aid of an eye tracker.

The object is also achieved by a method, which corresponds to anoperation according to the principles of the described system.

RGB Coding

The object is further achieved by a system for the color identificationof objects in the field of view of a plurality of spectacle wearers. Thesystem comprises one pair of spectacles per spectacle wearer, each withat least one eye. The spectacles each have at least one spectacle lens,wherein the respective at least one spectacle lens has a liquid crystalcell, the transmission of which may be varied by a suitable control. Theliquid crystal cells are so designed that the transmission of the liquidcrystal cells may be switched between states of high and lowtransmission.

The system comprises means for controlling or regulating the times ofthe high transmission states of the liquid crystal cells so that therespective liquid crystal cells are set to high transmission states atdifferent times.

In the system, each spectacle carrier has an RGB light source, as wellas means for controlling or regulating the luminance times, color andintensity of the RGB light source so that:

-   -   the RGB light source for a first spectacle wearer is illuminated        with a first color at a time of the state of high transmission        (T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cells (LC) of their spectacles;        and    -   the RGB light source for a second spectacle wearer is        illuminated at a time of the state of high transmission (T_(on))        of the liquid crystal cells (LC) of the spectacles of the second        spectacle wearer with a second color that is different from the        first color.

In this way, in group applications with a plurality of persons, a colorcoding of persons or objects may be carried out in the field of view ofthe respective participants, which only the individual sees and not theothers.

When the RGB light source, e.g. is so designed that it is suitable forproducing white light, this light may, for example, be decomposed into afast temporal sequence of a red, a green and a blue light pulse. If onlyone of these light pulses falls into a time of the state of hightransmission of the liquid crystal cell of a participant, they only seethis color. An outsider, in particular someone without shutterspectacles would perceive the light as white.

Members of a group, whose times of the state of high transmission of theliquid crystal cells are synchronized with each other, see the samecolor. Members of another group with different opening times of theliquid crystal cells see a different color.

For the color coding to remain secret or invisible to a third party oroutsiders without spectacles, the colors which are necessary to betransmitted in a time-dependent manner are emitted from thecorresponding RGB light sources in the times of the low transmissionstate of the respective spectacles, in order to leave a white colorimpression for those not wearing any of the spectacles.

In order to see something of the color markings of other subscribers orgroups at least in an attenuated form, the liquid crystal cell of afirst spectacle wearer may provide a weakened, but not zero,transmission in a time of the state of the high transmission of a secondspectacle wearer.

The color coding may thus take place not only in the three primarycolors red, green and blue, but in any color that may be blended fromred, green and blue. In order to freely define the color in which theRGB light source for the first spectacle wearer is illuminated in a timeof the state of the high transmission of the liquid crystal cell oftheir spectacles, an arbitrary intensity value between 0% and 100% of acolor component of each primary color of the RGB light source may beadded in the time of the state of the high transmission of the liquidcrystal cell. The up to 100% missing portion is radiated for each of thethree primary colors of the RGB light source during the correspondingtime of the low transmission state of the liquid crystal cells.

This secret color marking may be perfectly combined with theabove-mentioned glare weapon.

Furthermore, the system may be perfectly combined with the systems andmethods for the suppression of glare with the aid of an eye tracker asdescribed above.

The same applies to the above-described coding with a coding key whichwould prevent the possibly-used color code from being detected by anopponent.

The system may also be combined with the above-described systems andmethods for improving the legibility of display instruments.

The object is further achieved by a method, which corresponds to anoperation according to the principles of the described system.

Enhancing the Spatial Impression

The object is further achieved by a system for enhancing the spatialimpression of an object. The system includes spectacles for a wearerhaving at least two eyes, a right and a left eye. The spectacles have aspectacle lens in front of each of the two eyes, wherein each spectaclelens has a liquid crystal cell, whose transmission may be varied by asuitable control. The liquid crystal cells are so designed that thetransmission of the liquid crystal cells may be respectively switchedbetween states of high and low transmission. The spectacles also havemeans for controlling or regulating the times of the state of the hightransmission of the liquid crystal cells.

Furthermore, the system comprises two light sources, which are eachassigned to one eye, wherein the stereoscopic base of the light sourcesis greater than the eye distance. In addition, there are means forcontrolling or regulating the luminous times of the light sources,wherein

-   -   the light source associated with the right eye illuminates        during a time of the state of the high transmission of the        liquid crystal cell of the right eye,    -   while the light source assigned to the left eye does not        illuminate and the liquid crystal cell of the left eye is set to        the low transmission.

And vice versa.

This method leads to a better 3D perception, which in the technicalliterature is referred to as “2.5D”, since one cannot look completelybehind the object. The objects are illuminated from a largerstereoscopic base, and this illumination is respectively perceived bythe right and left eye. This results in the apparent optical effect thatthe pupil distance is as great as the distance between the two lightsources, which improves the possibility of depth resolution.

The fact that RGB signals may be emitted separately from each of the twospotlights so that third parties always see white light, while aspecific color may be made visible for each of the two eyes incorresponding time-selective T_(on) times through the spectacles, meansthat the object may, for example, be provided with a complementary colorseam (e.g. to the right with a red fringe and to the left with a bluefringe).

Basically, in the following description, one must distinguish betweenphysically-caused spatial projections due to the extended stereoscopicbase and so-called visual effects or visual accents, which are basedpurely on human perception, e.g. described by the system theoreticaltransmission channel of visual perception. (Source: Systemtheorie dervisuellen Wahrnehmung by Prof. Dr. -Ing. Gert Hauske, TU Munich, TeubnerVerlag, Stuttgart, 1994).

An object that has a complementary color space (e.g. right red, leftblue) may be somewhat more prominent in visual perception, especially inthe case of remote backgrounds or even no background (object in freelandscape).

A further enhancement of the spatial impression, or at least a moredifferentiated perception against a light background, is obtained whenthe two light sources are amplitude-modulated with a predeterminedfrequency, which is perceptible, by the human eye.

This may be used to achieve various visual perceptions, ranging from asimple visual “flashing highlight” a) in the case of light backgrounds(in-phase and out-of-phase), up to deliberately evoked visual effectsthat seem to enhance spatiality, such as the Pulfrich effect (inparticular, antiphase at night).

The aforementioned flashing (a) has the advantage that a temporalbrightness variation of an illuminated object in front of a relativelybright background is perceived as contrast-enhancing or ascontour-enhancing during the day or twilight, in particular when oneimagines that the two different fringe colors of the object (right red,left blue) flashes alternately. Flashing during the day is always a goodway to make slight differences in brightness visible to theperception—especially in the case of the arrangement described here.

Furthermore, especially in twilight or at night, the anti-phase flashing(b) as well as other suitable influencing of the transmission channel(the right or the left of the LC darkened rather more, as in the case of“HDR vision”, or less light transmitted on a channel), the “perceivedrun time in the face channel” (see above: Prof. Gert Hauske) of an imageor both images, is extended so that a Pulfrich effect may be evoked.

This system may be easily combined with the above-described colorcoding.

Instead of a complementary color space (right red, left blue), aright-left variation of a particular main color (e.g. red) may be usedas explained above in the section “invisible color coding”. The rightcolor fringe is bright red and the left fringe appears dark red (or thelike) to the user 1 of a team, while the user 2 of a team has the rightcolor fringe of an object light green and the left fringe dark green.

In addition, white light may always be added to the enhancement, sincethere is already a highlight because of the broader stereoscopic base,in particular in the case of objects in front of a more remotebackground or an infinite background in the free field.

The system may also be combined with the above-described systems andmethods for improving the readability of display instruments and glaresuppression with the aid of an eye tracker.

Finally, the system may also be combined with the systems and methodsfor the spatial separation of backlighting (LIDAR) as described below.

The object is also achieved by a method, which corresponds to anoperation according to the principles of the described system.

Lidar

The object is further achieved by means of a system for improving theview of a spatial region to be observed through glare suppression. Thesystem comprises spectacles with at least one spectacle lens, whereinthe at least one spectacle lens has a liquid crystal cell, thetransmission of which may be varied by a suitable control. The liquidcrystal cell is so designed that its transmission may be switchedbetween states of high and low transmission. The system furthercomprises means for controlling or regulating the times of hightransmission of the liquid crystal cell.

The system also includes a pulsed light source that emits light pulses.The light source is so designed that it may generate light pulses whosetemporal duration is shorter than that which the light of the lightsource needs in order to traverse the spatially observable region in theviewing direction of the wearer.

The spectacles further comprise means for controlling or regulating thetimes of the state of high transmission of the liquid crystal cell,which are capable of so temporally setting the times of the state ofhigh transmission of the liquid crystal cell that only the backscattersignal of the light pulse from the spatial region to be observed Istransmitted by the liquid crystal cell.

In this way, an effect similar to the laser-based measurement methodknown as LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) is achieved. The spectaclewearer sees the backlight only from the spatial region that has been cutout by the control of the spectacles. In this way, the usual scatteredlight resulting from fog, snowflakes or rain drops, which are directlyin front of the headlight, e.g. of a car, is avoided.

In order to increase the switching time of the liquid crystal cell, itis advisable under certain circumstances to reduce the area of theliquid crystal cell. If necessary, a transition from a simple spectaclelens to a combination of two collector lenses, in whose focus as smallas possible a liquid crystal cell is arranged, is required.

In addition, special liquid crystals may also be used, such as, forexample, multiple layers (stacks) of ferroelectric surface-stabilizedcrystals (FLC) in order to achieve the very fast switching requirementsin the time range of the velocity of light.

The system may be perfectly combined with the above-mentioned systemsand methods for the suppression of glare, as well as the steadilyreadable display.

The same applies to the amplification of the spatial view. This may helpto increase safety when driving.

The object is also achieved by a method, which corresponds to anoperation according to the principles of the described system.

Further details and features will become apparent from the followingdescription of preferred exemplary embodiments in conjunction with thesubclaims. In this case, the respective features may be implemented inthemselves or as a plurality in combination with one another. Thepossibilities for solving the problem are not limited to the exemplaryembodiments. Thus, for example, range data encompass all intermediatevalues (not mentioned) and all conceivable subintervals.

Intelligent Spectacles with Eye Tracker

All the above-mentioned problems are solved with “intelligentspectacles” consisting of at least one spectacle lens in the form of aliquid crystal cell LC, with a closed-loop real-time PID controlcircuit, but preferably consisting of two completely independentspectacle lenses and control circuits of the type mentioned. Thetransmission of the liquid crystal cell may be changed by appropriatecontrol in such a way that it may be switched between high and lowtransmission states, thereby achieving a shutter effect. If this is donequickly enough, the visual impression of the respective eye may bechanged on the basis of the inertia of the visual perception of thehuman being.

In order for a closed-loop control circuit to be implemented, at leastone photosensor must be “on the inside” per eye, in such a way that itis able to see through the shutter in the direction of the eye and thusmeasure the “actual brightness”. This serves as the “actual value” forthe control.

Defining comment needs to be made on the above-mentioned actualbrightness value measured by the shutter because, depending on thetechnical facts, a discrete (point-to-point) actual value on the timeaxis and an integration result must be distinguished over a completeshutter cycle T:

-   -   1. In actuality, the photosensors available today may be read        out so quickly that light intensities passing through the        shutter may be measured on the time axis on a point-by-point        basis (e.g. with sampling frequencies in the microsecond range),        similar to a digital storage oscilloscope with an optical        measuring head, so that a discrete actual value curve may be        stored in a volatile memory of the micro-controller. In this        process, it is possible to see exactly when the shutter is        opened (T_(on) or transparent) within a pulse width modulation        (PWM) cycle T and when it is closed (T_(off) or        non-transparent). For example, if the shutter system is        operating at a fundamental frequency of 100 Hz, the temporal        memory depth is 1/100 Hz=10 ms. At the end of a cycle, the        microcontroller may form an integral via this brightness profile        purely mathematically and thus supply the “actual value” of a        cycle.    -   2. On the other hand, the same photosensor could also be        integrated physically and electronically or with respect to        switching technology over the entire cycle T, i.e. over the        abovementioned 10 milliseconds, in such a way that precisely at        the end of the cycle T, there is a measuring result which is        then read by the microcontroller without a mathematical        averaging having to be effected. In the present invention, a        photosensor is used to measure the actual value, which enables        the rapid point-to-point/discrete measurement. In order to avoid        misunderstandings, the term “actual value” is generally used in        the text when a “gray value” (average brightness passing through        cycle T) is converted or integrated via the cycle time T, in        particular since the human being likewise only perceives gray        values, even when, in reality, only temporal ratios pass from        T_(on) T_(off).

The photosensor thus effectively takes over the role of the eye, tomeasure the “real brightness” that falls on the eye, not just any randomexternal brightness. The eye is used as low pass in an ON-OFF keyingPWM, in that the gray values are generated only in the eye or only inthe human perception, whereas the spectacle lenses in reality neverperceive gray values. Strictly speaking, in analogy to theabove-mentioned integration scenarios for the actual value (1 and 2), athird scenario may be defined by integrating the microcontroller and/orthe photosensor until a gray value is reached, which may also beperceived by humans as a gray value (e.g. after integration over about250 to 500 milliseconds). If this perceptible actual value is meant,this is usually indicated separately in the text.

The photosensor or brightness sensor is at a certain distance (typically1-3 mm) from the LC cell, so that the LC area actually considered, islarger than the chip area of the sensor due to its opening angle. Thisresults in a better averaging of the brightness and a moreaccurate/stable measurement in the case of point “LC domain formation”,or in the case of point contamination on the opposite side of the LCcell. In any case, for safety reasons and for thermal reasons, it isappropriate to provide an outer protective glass, which also constitutesthe outer design of the spectacles, at a distance of 1-3 mm in front ofthe LC cell. Thus, such point contamination (small flies, dustparticles, etc.) will no longer have any influence on the LC andcertainly no influence on the photosensor. In addition, the internalphotosensors (if they are conventional, and thus non-transparent,photosensors) are applied in the outer LC edge region or spectacle frameregion so that they do not interfere with the field of view.

However, in order to be able to determine the actual brightness value inthe center of the LC shutter or, as accurately as possible, at leasttwo, preferably three, photosensors per eye are used in the statisticalcenter of the pupil in the case of straight-ahead vision. For example,they may be arranged in a triangle, on the corner of which thestatistical local mean value of the pupil comes to lie, which is usuallyidentical (i.e. with non-squinting humans) with the point of thestraight-ahead view. With the help of a triangulation calculation, theaverage brightness with respect to this static local mean value or thestraightforward view may then be calculated and used as the “actualvalue” for the control.

In addition, a plurality of internal photosensors per eye have theadvantage that as a result of this redundancy, the measurementreliability is maintained, even in the event of contamination or in theevent of a strong punctual light incidence (e.g. random light reflectionon only one of three photosensors).

A “setpoint” is required for the control, which is initially preset bymeans of a type of potentiometer or similar “adjuster” in such a waythat the eye remains constantly adapted to the dark, similar to arelatively strong pair of sunglasses, e.g. with protection level III(S3, 8-18% transmission).

The control circuit must be so fast that the control process can nolonger be perceived by the human eye, so that the brightness arriving atthe eye is always constant (with respect to the setpoint value), nomatter how the brightness changes outside.

This is a so-called real-time control loop, wherein the so-called delta(control deviation), i.e. the difference between the setpoint value andthe actual value, is always zero in the retracted state (correct PIDparameterization).

Such a control, however, only works if the spectacles are absolutelylight-tight with respect to light from the outside. The spectacle caseis therefore similar to diving goggles, ski goggles or close-fittingsafety goggles with soft dust and light-tight eyecups in the style ofswimming goggles or large goggles with wide sidebars and protectionagainst light above and below. With the help of an electricalpotentiometer or similar adjuster, the pupil of the wearer of thespectacles a) may slowly open, even “turn” upright until it is 75% abovethe normal diameter in daylight; and b) remain steadily at this diameterdue to the real-time control, so that it is quasi “gently restrained”,no matter how the brightness outside may change.

This is done separately for each eye, although in the start-up routine,each eye may be set to the same setpoint value (for example, 100 lx forthe right (R) and left (L) eyes). In practice, the setpoint values R andL are comparatively slowly changed (e.g. 2 to 100 times slower than thebrightness control), and are also deliberately impacted with slightdifferences (e.g. 10% more transparency on the left and 10% lesstransparency on the right). The reasons are explained below.

At least one external sensor per eye (OL, OR) detects roughly andcomparatively slowly (for example within 1-2 seconds) the daylightsituation in a temporal average and determines whether it is a brightday, a covered day or an indoor environment. This is necessary becausethe dynamic scope during the day covers a range of 100 lx to 100,000 lx,i.e. a factor of 10,000, while a simple LC cell comprises only a factorof 1000 to 5000 (contrast ratio). The “operating point” of the LC cellis shifted into the correct range during a start-up routine when it isswitched on (e.g. on a very bright day of an initial 100 lx at the eyeto 300 lx at the eye) by means of a variable setpoint value, which isdetermined by the external sensor (light day, covered day, . . . ).

This setpoint value, which is initiated by the outside sensor, is alsoquickly and dynamically changed when the controller is at the lower orupper stop, i.e. the control deviation may no longer be zero because thecontrol variable on the LC cell or the transmission has reached a nolonger increasing value (i.e. all the way up or down).

This should not usually be the case, since it is intended to keep theeye permanently adapted to the dark. If the lighting situationcompletely changes, however, and taking into account the electronicallystored empirical values as well as information from the external andinternal sensors, shortly before reaching the controller stop in aspecific direction (LC fully on or completely off), the setpoint valueis so changed that the controller remains in the “control mode” and doesnot actually reach this stop, i.e. its response is logarithmic orsimilarly nonlinear in the widest sense, but allows a gentle andcontrolled closing of the iris due to the increased transmittedbrightness (e.g. when looking directly into the sun). However, thisadjustment of the setpoint value for the expansion of the dynamic scopeshould only occur in rare exceptional cases; In normal operation, thepupil is set to a relatively fixed dark value (e.g. 75% above normaldiameter) so that the eye already adapted to the dark is immediatelyavailable (i.e. within a millisecond) upon entry into a dark room.

In addition, the two setpoint values (L and R) may have slightdifferences, e.g. 5% to 30% more transparency on the left than theright, so that the brain may again form an image with a higher contrastrange (dynamic range) from the two slightly different images in theperception (known from photography as HDR=“high dynamic range”, whereintwo differently exposed photos are copied into each other). Theprerequisite is that the contrast difference does not become tooextreme, i.e. it remains imperceptible to humans, e.g. 1% to 60%,preferably 5% to 30%. Higher values >30% are also not excluded, butthese are then displayed for a shorter time, so that the brain maynevertheless imperceptibly construct a new image with a higher contrastrange. Thus, human perception is affected by using intelligent softwarealgorithms.

In addition, inclination and acceleration sensors may also be integratedin the spectacles, as is customary in so-called “wearable technology”and smartphones, so that e.g. during rapid travel such brightnessdifferences may be automatically reduced or even switched off, in orderto avoid, for example, unwanted effects (e.g. Pulfrich effect or otherperceptual artifacts).

The highest and most complex form of this type of electronic control isthe consideration of right-left contra-lateral pupillary affinity in a“Swinging Flashlight Test” (SWIFT)-like illumination situation, which iseffected physiologically via the crossing left-right nerve signalexchange in the chiasma opticum and in subsequent parts of the brain.Specifically, this means that no neuronal stimuli are exchangedcross-wise in the case of a healthy human being without asymmetries inthe contra-lateral pupillary affinity (as for example in the case of therelative afferent pupil defect RAPD) in exactly the same electronicsetpoint values for both eyes (L=R=const.), since the brightness isalways constant on both eyes. There are three ways to exploit thiseffect:

-   -   1) An increased control signal (e.g. intensified darkening) on        one channel (L or R), with identical nominal values        (R=L=const.), signals an asymmetrical illumination situation,        e.g. excessive outdoor light on the relevant channel. The        microcontroller of this channel communicates with the other        microcontroller or the state machine of the other channel the        nearly-reaching or overshooting of the channel of the        under-illuminated side may then open.    -   2) Intentional operation in the HDR difference mode may lead to        a channel that is switched brighter (more transparent), in        particular if it is switched too fast and too circumferentially        transparent (delta t, delta T relatively high), a contra-lateral        pupil contraction on the other channel. In order to take into        account this effect (to compensate=negative feedback, or, if        necessary, to amplify it=positive feedback), the other channel        is gently and appropriately controlled in such a way that there        is an improved view for the other eye, but without it leading to        a new contralateral transfer to the originally influenced        channel. For this purpose, attenuation is provided in order to        prevent the system from being scanned by both pupils and both        software-controlled channels. The external light situation, the        working points of the two controllers, the        transient/illumination changes on the respective channels (for        example bright day, cloudy day, proximity to the control stop)        and the difference between the controllers are taken into        account.    -   3) Medical and psychopathological indications:        -   (a) For patients with a relative afferent pupillary defect            (RAPD), the right-left pupil behavior pattern of the patient            may be stored in the software of the microcontroller, so            that during operation within the two above-mentioned modes            (1 and 2) correct LC transparency is taken into account in            such a way that the perceived brightness is always constant            or corresponds to certain desired values.        -   b) For patients with medically-prescribed right-left visual            training (for example, after a stroke), one side may be            alternately darker or lighter depending on certain temporal            patterns.        -   (c) For emergency service personnel in stressful situations            (e.g. soldiers in action), who have an acutely increased            adrenaline level and therefore generally dilated pupils, the            software may reduce the transmission accordingly by slightly            decreasing (slightly darkening) upon instruction (key),            wherein the visual perception is more pleasant in            brightness.

The inside photo cells are at least doubled or even tripled. This servesnot only to calculate the average brightness in the most likely locationof the pupil (as described above), but also for safety reasons. Forexample, the software can recognize a contamination or a defect of acertain photosensor by logical comparison (for example, two sensors showsimilar brightness and only one shows no brightness at all), and as aconsequence only take into account the two photosensors that arefunctioning.

For this purpose, the software contains, in addition to the permanentlycalculating controller components, purely logic safety routines(separate state machines), which ensure the functioning of thespectacles constantly in parallel to the controller. (In this context,it should be noted that the most fault-tolerant spectacles of this type,which are intended for automotive applications, are dual-core ortri-core processors approved according to the ASIL standard, which testboth hardware and software for errors.

Eye Tracker of the Simple Type

In analogy to the above-mentioned photosensors or camera types, whichsimulate a human eye, a second sensor to observe the eye, is placedinside the spectacles, where this sensor is located. This could e.g. bemounted on the rear side of the aforesaid sensor or slightly offsettherefrom. Various types of sensors may be employed, e.g. relativelysimple and inexpensive photosensors, or CCD sensors, orhigher-resolution imaging systems. In the simplest case, the viewingdirection is only roughly detected. In particular, the left-rightmovement of the eye may easily be detected even in the white part of theeye (sciera) by using a coded infrared light barrier. Infrared light isnot perceived by the eye, but is reflected differently depending on theviewing direction. A coding of the IR source is necessary so that thereis no confusion with other light sources and reflections on the receiverside. This encoding may be cyclic in the simplest case (e.g. 10 kHzrectangle with known frequency and phase position). A phase-sensitivedetector (PSD, also known as a boxcar amplifier) may carry out a veryaccurate amplitude measurement from the frequency and in particular thephase position with respect to the transmitter signal after low-passintegration over approximately 10 cycles, i.e. with approximately 1 kHz,even if this is very weak compared to the “noise” of other IR signals.

This is only one example of a simple eye tracker. The pupil position mayalso be determined by a very similar method—likewise in reflection, butin this case with respect to the absorption in the dark pupil instead ofthe reflection on the white sciera. Since reflection photoelectricsensors are very cost-effective, such sensors may be installed bothinside at the eye (close to the nose) and outside the eye (close to thetemple), possibly under the eye (looking up/down)—thus 2 to 3 sensors intotal. Several such sensors increase the measuring accuracy with respectto the viewing direction.

However, an eye tracker is ideally used when it uses a tinyhigh-resolution imaging camera similar to that used in smartphones ornotebooks. This camera detects the pupil position with respect to theviewing direction and thus of all angles.

Correlation Calculation from Photosensors and an Eye Tracker

The directional and brightness information of the photocells/cameras arecorrelated mathematically with the direction of the eye determined bythe eye tracker. This means, for example, that the viewing direction isinitially taken as the output value, while the incident brightness ismeasured simultaneously (i.e. in real-time) at the exact same angle andis constantly regulated. Since this is a real-time PID control loop,wherein the control deviation is always zero, the brightness in theviewing direction will always be constant—namely, the adjusted setpointvalue.

If this control functions very precisely, which is possible using hightechnology, the pupil on the main axis never experiences a difference inbrightness. This control mode may be selected according to theapplication (e.g., sports, automotive, industry, medicine, military),e.g. by a switch or other command (e.g. via a smartphone connected tothe spectacles via Bluetooth or the like).

On the other hand, this extremely fast and precise control mode couldalso lead to undesirable artifacts in the perception depending on theapplication. Therefore, an alternative mode may be set, wherein thesoftware is deliberately slowed down or the brightness is adjusted onlyin slight angle gradations. For example, only when the user really looksexactly into a laterally located source of glare (e.g. car traffic)would it be immediately adjusted to constant brightness, otherwise, whenthe pupil moves back and forth only slightly in the middle and out ofthe region of no backlight, this is constantly regulated to thisbrightness.

In addition, the individual and age-dependent glare sensitivityfunction, which may be stored in the software as a formula or look-uptable (LUT), may be stored as a template (e.g. with multiplicativeweighting) via the signal of the forward-looking brightness sensor.Although this sensor does not move like an eyeball, but is rigidlymounted to be straight, this template is moved along with the eyetracker signal according to the eyeball movement. This practicallycreates an artificial eye, which takes into account the individualviewing angle-dependent glare sensitivity, which is used as thereference variable (also referred to as the “actual value”) in thereal-time PID control circuit. It is left to the person skilled in theart to make the algorithms gentler or stronger depending on the intendedapplication. Alternatively, provision may be made for the user to make aselection.

General System for Glare Suppression

This is a system for visibility enhancement by means of glaresuppression (also known as the anti-glare system), which implementsintelligent and safety-relevant multi-channel real-time controls forvisual enhancement, wherein the left and right eye are treatedseparately and/or comprise several users for group applications.

In order to achieve a consistent overall system wherein the visor andthe spotlights continuously and analogously interact in such a way thatan application range from zero darkness (0 lux) to twilight (e.g. 100lux) is seamlessly covered, For example, in the case of constantintegral brightness of the spotlights, spectacles controlled in realtime to constant brightness, as described above, are needed, while, inmany cases, a somewhat simplified version (without an eye tracker) issufficient. Such spectacles allow the suppression of glare by constantcontrol to a brightness value. In addition, the eye is permanently keptquite dark (i.e. a relatively large pupil is adjusted) so that the useris immediately and imperceptibly adapted to the dark (in real time) whentraversing a light-dark jump (e.g. entering a dense forest), whichotherwise usually takes up to a minute or more. However, it isproblematic that the contrast range or the quotient of useful signal andinterference signal decreases with increasing darkening through thespectacle lenses (i.e. increasing brightness outside).

In order to correct this, a synchronously operated spotlight is stillrequired (which therefore operates with the same frequency as thespectacles). In this case, the pulse energy should remain largelyconstant per transmitted light pulse. For this purpose, the temporalintegral of the product of the luminous intensity of the spotlight andits luminous duration is kept as constant as possible during a cycle.

System for Glare Suppression with a Display

Hitherto, the use and application of anti-glare systems has mainly beenin motorized movement (cars, motorcycles, trains, etc.) or in the caseof fast movements under one's own power (bicycles etc.), wherein glareis primarily caused by the headlights of opposing vehicles or by the sunor other disturbing light sources. In such scenarios, it is assumed thatthe interfering signal (for example, oncoming traffic or the sun) andthe useful signal (own headlights) come from completely differentdirections (sun in the distance, headlights on the car). A somewhatdifferent situation arises when the spurious signal (sun) is reflectedprecisely at the point where a useful signal is generated, e.g. on areflective screen surface.

However, both situations have in common that the sum signal at the eyealways consists of an interference signal and a useful signal. Withrespect to the spectacles-eye combination, therefore, nothing changesphysically since, from a human perception point of view, a useful signalis always distinguished from an interference signal by time division,while the integral ratio of useful signal to interference signal shouldbe improved. In addition, in both cases, the interference signal mayalso come from a different direction than the viewing direction of theuser, but such an interference signal may also dazzle so strongly thatvisibility at the viewing point is impaired.

Display systems include all types of screens, displays (PC, notebook,smart-phone, TV, . . . ), fittings, or other visual human-machineinterfaces, e.g. cockpit fittings of all types, e.g. In the car,airplane, ship, motorcycle, etc., or other self-illuminating displaypanels, warning signs, tachometers, clocks, geo-coordinate navigationsystems, head-up displays, etc.

This is remedied by modulating the indicator light as if it were theabove-mentioned own headlight. This means that whenever the liquidcrystal cell of the spectacles is opened in a short time slot (e.g. foronly 5% of the cycle time T), the background illumination of the displayis switched on briefly and pulse-like, preferably with higher lightintensity than normal.

The preset value of the brightness of the display, which is required fora user to read the information displayed on the display, results, on theone hand, from the brightness to which the spectacles control the lightstriking the eye, e.g. 400 lx, and, on the other hand, from the usualbrightness of this display. Since the spectacles are typicallycontrolled to 400 lx, i.e. a rather dark state, the value to be achievedby the product of T_(on) and the brightness of the display is generallybelow the normal brightness setting of the display. This leaves room forthe required pulse-like elevation. This is always problem-free if thebackground lighting consists of fast-reacting light sources (e.g. whitelight or RGB LEDs), which in turn may be controlled by a) software or b)an OEM hardware solution.

-   -   a) In the simplest case, a software downloaded from the Internet        (e.g. an app) may already so adjust the brightness display        backlighting of a smartphone or similar device, e.g. tablet or        notebook or a head-up display located outside of the spectacles,        that the above-described anti-glare system is implemented.    -   b) Otherwise, smartphone and tablet devices may be expected to        adapt to such a system in the medium term (i.e. already after a        few years), by incorporating special overpowered backlighting        into their devices. As new consumer terminals appear on the        market, this possibility may, in any event, be regarded as        realistic. And in the case of special displays for non-consumer        devices (aircraft cockpit, etc.), it is already obvious how such        special systems may be easily incorporated into the next        generation of indicators through co-operation.

Through such a system, e.g. over 95% of the glare is suppressed, whilethe light pulses of the screen fall exactly into the open time slot ofthe spectacles and thus onto the eye adapted to the dark. As a result,the displayed information is clearly visible despite considerable solarradiation (or other disturbing radiation), while the display would notbe readable without such a system.

System for Glare Suppression in the Case of Glare Weapons

Definition:

The word “glare weapon” or “dazzler” is generally used here to serveonly as a generic term, i.e. it is irrelevant to which light-technicalimplementation (lamp, laser, etc.), wavelength or intensity it refers,so that it equally covers a LASER dazzler with a very high beamintensity or a LASER with variable wavelength (multicolor) or otherhigh-intensity light sources—also in the edge ranges of infrared (IR) orultraviolet (UV). Common to all glare weapons is the idea of explicitlyaggressive tactical glare and interference from opponents (whether as anindividual or a group), or to the glare and interference ofoptoelectronic systems used by the enemy (e.g. sensor systems on tanksor the like).

According to the latest state of the art, the extremely bright light ofone's own glare weapon exceeds its own headlight light, so that it is nolonger sufficiently recognizable in the distance, even if thesurroundings of the dazzled opponent is illuminated with theheadlight(s) in order, for example, to detect suspicious changes in thescenery (beyond the already successfully dazzled, so-called activeenvironmental observation).

The present glare suppression system may be combined with such a glareweapon (dazzler). In this embodiment, an anti-cyclic or invertedswitching-on signal is fed to the glare weapon with respect to theopening duration T_(on) of the spectacles. The glare weapon is thusalways switched off only for the very short time slot (for example, 5%of the cw duration period of the dazzler), in which the search headlampis switched on, and the spectacles are synchronously open for too shorta time. As soon as the glasses close again (non-transparent switching),the glare weapon operates again. This allows a separate two-channeloperation (headlight and dazzler) as a whole.

If the dazzler is switched off completely in the short open time slotsof the spectacles, this may have disadvantages, since it is then nolonger visually traceable. Therefore, for these times, the dazzler maybe set to a freely adjustable low luminous intensity of, for example,0.5-5% of its maximum intensity so that it remains clearly visible tothe user and is not inadvertently so strongly suppressed that it is nolonger sufficient to know where the glare weapon is shining.

With such a two-channel or even multi-channel operation, consisting ofan individual source of own light and at least one individual glareweapon, it is possible to dazzle enemy personnel or their opticalequipment (e.g. sensors on a tank), but also simultaneously toilluminate/explore the surrounding environment in the viewing directionwith one's own separate light source

In combination with the embodiments of the system according to theinvention described below, it is even possible to mark enemy targets formembers of a team (and only for them) in color and to operate the systemin an encrypted manner.

System for Glare Suppression with Coding

In particular, a group application is foreseen for use with authoritiesand organizations with security tasks (BOS) or with the military. Thismust ensure that the actors do not inadvertently dazzle each other. Forthis purpose, the components of the system are synchronized with oneanother. As it cannot be ruled out that there are external users ofsimilar systems (whether they are opponents or other teams with asimilar task), it is planned to modulate the components of the system(e.g. spectacles and light sources) in such a way that thecorrespondingly synchronous short opening times of the spectacles nolonger correspond to a cyclic or periodic pattern, but their temporalsequence constantly changes according to a secret coding key. Inprinciple, this change may take place with regard to all conceivablefree modulation parameters, but preferably with respect to their phaseposition, pulse position (phase and pulse position hopping), frequency(frequency-hopping), amplitude (AM) or combinations of these modulationmethods.

Such coding may, of course, also be applied to the above-describedconfiguration of the system with glare weapons. In such a case, theglare weapon also “jumps” back and forth with the secret coded timeslots of the spectacles and the own light source on the time axis—onlyinverted in each case.

It is also conceivable that graduations of coding keys, e.g. one or moreadditional glare weapons (dazzlers) could be encrypted separately bymeans of a sub-key (possibly inherited from the team key) per person orper team without dazzling each other by mistake.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The exemplary embodiments are schematically illustrated in the figures.Identical reference numerals in the individual figures denote the sameor functionally equivalent elements or corresponding elements withrespect to their functions:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation in a sectional top view of theelectronic spectacles;

FIG. 2 shows a diagram of the so-called transmission of the spectaclesof a glare suppression system over time, wherein the system is equippedwith a glare weapon;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic representation of the situation when a glaresignal (sun) is reflected on a indicator or display surface;

FIG. 4 shows the situation from FIG. 3, with an additional device fornon-modulatable displays;

FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of the situation with aso-called “internal HUD”;

FIG. 5B shows an embodiment as protective goggles for complete darkness,without a source of its own light (working protection);

FIG. 6 shows a diagram of the transmission for an anti-glare system withRGB color coding;

FIG. 7 shows a diagram illustrating the behavior of the varioustransmission levels TR (Ch #1, 2, 3) in an anti-glare system with RGBcolor coding;

FIG. 8 shows a schematic representation of a system for enhancing thespatial impression;

FIG. 9 shows a schematic representation of a system for improving thevisual range by suppressing reflections in the close-up region throughparticle precipitation according to the LIDAR principle;

FIG. 10 shows a diagram for the own light suppression of a glaresuppression system; and

FIG. 11 shows a further diagram for own light suppression, which showsthe initialization phase.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following, reference is made in part to FIG. 1.

Everything that follows always applies to one eye (right or left, alsoreferred to as a “channel”). A channel consists of at least one LC cell(but it is also possible to connect two or more LC cells in series)which, depending on the application, contains suitable fast andhigh-contrast LC material (TN, STN, Fe-LC).

Cells that are more distant from the human body are referred to as“distal”, while those closer to the eye are referred to as “proximal.”One to three complex photosensors IL1, IR1 are located at a certaindistance (typically 1-3 mm) behind the proximal cell, to detect thelight incident through the LC cell LC 1L, LC 2L, LC 1R, LC 2R in theviewing direction, wherein a single photosensor consists, in turn, of atleast three sensors which span an orthogonal x-y-z coordinatesystem—wherein the vector (1,1,1) appropriately points in the viewingdirection.

As an alternative to such an x-y-z photosensor, it is possible to use aphotosensor array which, like a compound eye, comprises significantlymore than 3 orthogonal channels. Each channel may measure the brightnessover a wide dynamic range so that a “coarse image” is transmitted to themicroprocessor.

As an alternative to such a “coarse image”, a system (camera) with asignificantly higher resolution (e.g. 5 megapixel camera) with anidentical miniature size not exceeding a few square millimeters, may beprovided with a significantly higher resolution, similar to thosealready used in smartphones and notebooks. The image transmitted by suchcameras to the processor is finely resolved: the dynamic scope and thelinearity to measure the brightness are ensured by using highly dynamicchip materials, similar to those used in analytical medical photography.

For pure safety reasons, at least 3 such complex photosensors (x-y-z, orcompounds or camera) are used per eye E(L), E(R) (channel).

All of the above-mentioned photosensors may be e.g. in the form ofphotodiodes, phototransistors, photocells, etc., wherein all of thesehave in common that they react color-neutrally by including thecolor-sensitivity curve of the eye (the so-called V-lambda functionaccording to DIN 5031). Photocells of this type are used, for example,in photography for color-neutral illumination measurement. Depending onthe ambient brightness (measured by an external sensor OL, OR, orderived from the manipulated variable and setpoint value of thecontroller MC), a look-up table (LUT) mainly in the case of darkness,may be included in the calculation algorithm, which comprises the V′values for night vision, so that the so-called Purkinje effect(increased blue sensitivity at night) is taken into account.Furthermore, individual, age-dependent glare sensitivity may be takeninto account—on the basis of empirical studies, in particularangle-dependent and age-dependent (e.g. Adrian and Bhanji 1991Illumination Engineering Society of North America).

Free-Form Lens/Channel or Software with Camera

The physical conversion of the above-mentioned eye sensitivity formulamay be used for the direction-sensitive measurement of brightnessthrough a free-form lens of transparent material (e.g. glass, plastic,liquid, etc.), which is mounted in front of a photosensor in such a waythat it acts like the human eye. It thus creates an “artificial eye”,which is as sensitive to glare via the incidence angle as a human eye.Two factors must be taken into account here: 1. the V-Lambda andV′-Lambda functions (Purkinje effect at night); 2. the angle-dependentglare sensitivity.

Instead of this lens, it is also possible to use a black channel (i.e.essentially a bore), which is shaped appropriately by means of afree-form calculation, at the end of which the photoelectric cell islocated, so that it receives an opening angle which corresponds to thesensitivity of the human eye.

Alternatively, the formula for glare sensitivity may be implementedpurely as an algorithm or in the software, which also receives thehigh-resolution/high-dynamic image of the camera, since the directionalinformation and brightness per pixel is also contained in the cameraimage. The camera image may then be weighted with individual(age-dependent) evaluation formulas, especially as one may determinetheir personal age or other individual preferences or medicalindications/recommendations regarding glare sensitivity via anyhuman-machine interface (e.g. buttons on the spectacles, USB-PC softwareinterface, smartphone app via (Bluetooth) wireless).

Eye Tracker

The directional and brightness information of the photocells/camera mayalso be mathematically correlated with the viewing direction, which maybe determined by an eye tracker ET(L), ET(R).

The individual and age-dependent glare sensitivity function, which maybe stored in the software as a formula or look-up table (LUT), may thenbe laid over the signal of the forward-looking brightness sensor as atemplate (e.g. with multiplicative weighting). This sensor is mountedrigidly on the spectacles. However, due to the eye tracker signal, thistemplate is also displaced according to the eyeball movement, whereinthe functionality of an artificial eye is achieved that takes intoaccount the individual viewing angle-dependent glare sensitivity,

Pulse Shaping in the LC Cells

There are three possibilities:

-   -   1. Both LC cells are cells, which are transparent in the        voltage-free state in order to allow normal vision in the event        of a system or voltage failure.    -   2. For high-safety applications where there is a permanent risk        of glare in the work area (e.g. a LASER laboratory or when arc        welding), LC cells may be used which operate in exactly the        opposite way, i.e. they are completely dark in the voltage-free        state and may only be switched to become transparent by pressing        a safety switch or the like.    -   3. Mixing of cells of the above-mentioned types, i.e. one that        is permeable in the voltage-free state, and an impermeable cell.        This arrangement may be used to improve the flank slope at both        the ascending and falling flanks of an optical pulse, in the        sense of a transparent circuit for a fraction of a second in the        form of a square pulse on the time axis (rectangle with high        flank slope on the optically measuring oscilloscope image). The        advantage of this is the reduced noise and other        contrast-reducing artifacts (crosstalk) in synchronous        applications with one's own source of light or several        participants.

The spectacles described above may be used as part of a glaresuppression system. FIG. 2 shows the so-called transmission (TR) of suchspectacles over time. The transmission is thus the quotient of theintensity I₀ passed by the liquid crystal cell LC and the incidentintensity I.

The spectacles are opened In the time T_(on), i.e. switched totransparent. In the remaining time (period T minus T_(on)), the glassesare closed, i.e. non transparent.

In order to obtain seamless and analog gray values, the signal in FIG. 2(first line) is implemented as the analog pulse width modulation PWM,i.e. in FIG. 2, for example, only different jump-like states of the PWMare imaged from cycle T to the cycles 2T and 3T. These states may alsobe written as the percentage pulse-cycle time ratio D (duty cycle).

In order to improve the “SNR” (“Signal to Noise Ratio”), the pulseenergy per transmitted light pulse is kept constant within certainlimits. In particular, the area A in the middle line of FIG. 2, whichresults from the active pulse width time T_(on) multiplied by therespective emitted intensity IE (I=intensity, E=emitted) of a pulse, iskept largely constant.

In practice, this may be done by applying a higher voltage or byimpressing a higher current in a suitable light source that is designedfor such high energies. It is up to the person skilled in the art toensure that the existing light source is suitable for this purpose.

In addition, the light intensity IE must always correspond to thestandardized intensity value I standard, which has already been approvedby authorities (TUV, etc.), but multiplied by the reciprocal of ahundredth of the duty cycle D.

Example:

-   -   Pulse-pause ratio=duty cycle=50%=0.5    -   Reciprocal of 0.5=factor 2    -   IE=2×I standard

This method is necessary so that the intensity measured over a long timeintegral always corresponds to a constant I standard. Even if thetemporal measurement interval is only 1 second for the authorities, thenin the case of a 70 Hz spotlight, so many different pulse heights orpulse cycles will have already been averaged in time so that therequired constant light value I standard always results. The principlebecomes clear by integrating the signal IE in the middle line of FIG. 2from t=0 to the cycle end T3.

Moreover, in very narrow time slots in which the spectacles are open andtransparent (e.g. 5%), the setpoint value of the control circuit, theeye is so sensitive to light that even small powers of IE (i.e. IEdivided by T_(on)) are sufficient to achieve a visible improvement ofthe observed scenery, while about 100-5%=95% of the interferingextraneous light may be suppressed.

The present glare suppression system may be combined with a glare weapon(dazzler). The bottom line of FIG. 2 relates to this situation and showshow the dazzler receives an on/off signal which is anti-cyclic orinverted with respect to the opening time of the spectacles. Inaddition, it may be seen that the dazzler is limited to a(freely-adjustable) non-zero OFF value of an amount of, e.g. 0.5-5% ofits maximum intensity IDAZ may be determined, so that it remainsvisually readily observable to the user.

FIG. 3 shows how the anti-glare system may be combined with a display tosuppress glare by reflection at the display while ensuring thereadability of the display. In this case, the sum signal gamma 1+2 atthe eye is always composed of an interference signal and a usefulsignal. In the simplest case, software downloaded from the Internet(e.g. an app) may already have the display backlighting of a smartphoneSP or similar device, e.g. tablet or notebook or a head-up displaylocated outside of the spectacles, in such a manner that theabove-described anti-glare system is achieved. Over 95% of the sunlightS and gamma 1 may be suppressed in this way, while the light pulses ofthe screen fall exactly into the open time slots of the spectacles andthe eye adapted to the dark.

The synchronization of the spectacles with the display may be effectedin various ways:

-   -   1) In one case, the electronic device is the “master”, which        emits simple pulsed light, wherein the spectacles may        synchronize purely optically with the help of their light        sensors (outside=OS, inside=IS).    -   2) Optionally, synchronous information may be exchanged via a        radio link RF between the spectacles and the terminal.        Typically, already existing radio systems, such as, for example,        Bluetooth, may be used. The “master” device may remain open here        and it is only a question of programming.    -   3) in addition, sync information SYNC between the terminal and        the spectacles may also be transmitted by means of a cable (e.g.        USB) or in any other conceivable way. The one that is the        “master” of both, may remain open here and it is only a question        of programming.

In the following, reference is made to FIG. 4.

A solution is also possible for displays and indicators which do notreadily allow the background lighting to be modulated. For displayswhich have at least uniform background illumination (e.g. paper-likedisplays with “electronic ink” for reading books), another liquidcrystal shutter AddLC may be placed or clamped on this display. Thisadditional shutter modulates the otherwise even (DC), but maximum (oralso over-maximal through interference) background light of the displaycorresponding to the time slots of the spectacles. If the uniformbackground illumination may be set to very bright, this arrangementresults in the already described advantages of glare suppression ofextraneous sources of interference S, including the describedimprovement in legibility. The additional shutter has its own interfacesfor synchronization with the spectacles, e.g. Radio RF2 or a cableconnector (e.g. USB) or any other access SYNC2.

In addition, a suitable combination of the aforementioned informationchannels may also be used, e.g. software (“App”) for activating thebacklighting via radio RF1, and the radio connection RF2 or the cableSYNC2 for synchronization with the spectacles. A purely opticalsynchronization by the optical sensors OS, IS of the spectacles is alsopossible.

In contrast to the head-up display (HUD) external to the spectacles, the“HUD” within the spectacles represents a special case which is shown inFIG. 5 (transparent HUD, similar to “Google Glasses” or Samsung “GearGlasses” etc.). This results in a read-out improvement through glaresuppression, which is important In the event of accidental viewing ofthe sun (the shutter will be completely or nearly closed at shortnotice). In addition, an improvement results from the fact that thespectacles always control the exact brightness (largely constantsetpoint value) over a very large dynamic range, which in turn ensuresthe optimum background brightness and/or the optimum contrast,regardless of the internal HUD transparency, however the brightnesschanges outside. The internal HUD may be read at any time.

The following refers to FIG. 5B.

In the context of work protection, there are very simple glare goggleswhich are worn in the dark, e.g. in research and developmentlaboratories, which have to be dark to carry out the work (e.g. lightand LASER experiments, bio-tech), when used by skin doctors duringintensive pulsed light therapy (IPL therapy) or the like. However, theseprotective goggles are often unsuitable for carrying out work becausethey know only two states, i.e. on and off, and also react incorrectly,since too few photosensors are mounted on the outside, which onlycontrol the liquid crystal cells, but not in real-time (see, forexample, DE 10 2014 107 587). In addition, the transmission state of theglasses (on or off) remains unknown in the dark, since neither acontroller nor a regulator can provide reliable “actual values”. Even aregulator would have the problem in complete darkness (e.g. about zerolux) in that the actual value may be too small to provide reliable andsafety-relevant information about the correct functioning of the liquidcrystal cells.

For such situations, an active light curtain LS is provided for eacheyeglass lens (i.e. left and right) comprising an active light-emittingdiode LED and a further internal sensor IS2 lying opposite, wherein thetransmission through the liquid-crystal cells is specificallytransmitted via a wide analog dynamic range and may be measured even incomplete darkness.

System for Glare Suppression with RGB Coding

In the following, reference is made to FIGS. 6 and 7.

Particularly in the case of glare suppression systems provided for groupapplications for use with authorities and organizations with securitytasks (BOS) or with the military, an embodiment may be used which makesit possible, e.g. (for example, for marked targets) to assign a freelyselectable light color, which, for example, can only be clearly seen byone team member, and in a weakened form also by his group members, whilethe light appears white to outsiders.

For this purpose, own light sources are used, which may be modulated notonly in their amplitude or luminous intensity, but also in their color(wavelength). In addition to wavelength-tunable light sources such asoscillators (e.g. OPO, OPA lasers, etc.), powerful RGB LASER or RGB LEDmay be used in the simplest case, wherein they typically have 3separately controllable channels, namely the so-called primary colors“red, green and blue” according to the RGB color model, which result ina corresponding overlap of white light. Other types and combinations ofprimary colors close to the RGB color model are also possible as long asthey result in total white light.

The colors R=red, G=green, B=blue of the first channel Ch #1, shownseparately in the lower 3 diagrams of FIG. 6 (IE of R, G, B), are notnecessarily transmitted at the same time, but blue, for example, mayalso be transmitted with a slight time delay after red and green, but soshortly thereafter (a few milliseconds) that the human brain perceivesthem not as flicker, but always together as white light.

The difference for the wearer of the spectacles with respect to thechannel designation is, however, that the color in the time slot T_(on)in which the spectacles are opened (i.e. TR near 100%), the two colorsred and green are transmitted from the own light source, while blue isonly transmitted when the glasses are closed again (TR near 0%=OFF). InFIG. 6, this blue pulse is denoted by “B1 and top line”, wherein theline above the letter signifies “negated”. In this context, B1 isnegated “blue, invisible to channel 1”. In FIG. 6, this is symbolicallyindicated with Y above the curly bracket, since the sum of red and greenresults in the mixed color yellow. The wearer of the spectacles Ch #1thus sees yellow light. Thus at least one multi-channel time-divisionmultiplexing method is used with respect to the three color channels RGBand the respective spectacles.

In FIG. 6, it may be seen in channel 2 that the colors red and blue R+Bmix in the time slot in which the spectacles are open, indicated by thecurly bracket with M (for magenta since this color results from themixture of red and blue). The wearer of the spectacles Ch #2 thus seesmagenta-colored light.

In order for the wearer to have an idea of which channel his neighbor islighting the target (e.g. for secret marking), the spectacles Ch #1 willonly be slightly opened in the time slot of the channel, e.g. from closeto 0% (spectacles closed) to 25% transmission (for example and freelyadjustable), so that the wearer also sees the color magenta of thewearer of the spectacles Ch #2. However, since only 25% are visible, thewearer of the spectacles Ch #1 may concentrate more on his own light.Depending on the specific application, the degree of this attenuationmay be freely changed between 0% (hidden from other team members) and100% (to all others exactly as bright as their own color light source).

In fact, the “equal-time signal flanks” (solid, dashed and dotted linesin FIG. 6) overlap. For the sake of clarity, however, these are notshown as overlapping in FIG. 6, but minimally offset. The correctsituation without this offset is illustrated in FIG. 7. It may be seenhere that the spectacles or channel Ch #1 to Ch #3 are actuallyapproximately equal in width (the same T_(on)), and that in the timeslot of the other channels, the respective spectacles open very easily(e.g. about 25%). FIG. 7 thus represents the same situation as in FIG.6, but with separate channels. The variables x %, y %, z % are intendedhere to show that each user may freely adjust the degree ofrecognizability of the other participants or colors according to theirrole in the team or according to personal preference.

FIG. 6 shows various exemplary modulation methods for the RGB lightsources after expiration of the cycle time T. In analogy to the methodof the constant energy per pulse (constant pulse area A) described atthe outset, an RGB light source may also be modulated so that theindividual color channels become narrower over time, while becominghigher in intensity and/or vice versa. This is easily possible becauseRGB LED or RGB LASER may be modulated in phase and amplitude relativelyquickly, in particular at a significantly higher frequency than thespectacles. Thus, the exact phase (temporal position) of a single RGBpulse may be easily varied within the opening time T_(on) of thespectacles, whether from total-cycle to total-cycle (approx. 70-140 Hz),or even extremely fast (>>1 kHz) within one cycle. By such an extremelyfast phase variation, a phase modulation or a PSK may be applied to eachindividual RGB channel recognized by other spectacles or otherreceivers, e.g. it may also be used for “optical synchronization” of thespectacles, wherein the external and internal sensors OS, IS of thespectacles are always fast enough for this. This makes it possible tosynchronize the spectacles within a team without radio contact (e.g. ifthis is undesirable or fails).

Apart from the color marking of objects, this phase modulation may alsobe encoded with a secret key and secret information contents in such away that other information (e.g. what type of object, name, etc.) in thesense of a complete marking (“full information designation”), may beapplied to a target or object. This complete information may, in turn,be decoded by the external and internal sensors OS, IS or also byseparate receiving and decoding units.

In FIG. 6, the splitting of the third time beam from above (IE green)right, into two temporally half-wide pulses G1′ and G1″ (i.e. 2×½T_(on)) is shown to the right above and designated A=constant, whichcorresponds to the already explained principle of the constant energyper pulse. In addition, “xPSK” is present which means that almost anyphase modulation methods are possible with two separate pulses, similarto “di-bits”, which may vary and jump in phase relation to each other orin relation to the time axis—theoretically also QPSK and similarprocedures.

The splitting of the blue pulse in B2′ and B2″ (negated in each case atthe top) is visible on the lower time beam (IE blue), but only at halfheight, i.e. amplitude 0.5 I standard. In this example, too, it becomesclear that the area A (i.e. the energy of the pulse array) remainsconstant. The amplitude information may also be used for thetransmission of information, as in the case of an amplitude modulationAM, if appropriate also encoded with a secret key. It is also possibleto use mixing of any FSK, x-PSK and AM methods.

The synchronization of the spectacles and own light sources is usuallyeffected via radio signals, but may also take place optically.Synchronization may take place according to a certain hierarchy system,where one participant is always “master” and all others are always“slaves” (if the master fails, another specified “slave” becomes“master”, etc.). This hierarchy may be determined, for example in thecontext of a common initialization routine (i.e. before a deployment),but also in the middle of the process (e.g. by radio or optically, dueto a programmed encoded recognition, similar to multi-user IT systemssuch as LAN, WLAN, Token-Ring, etc.).

In addition, this overall multi-user system may be operated at theexpense of a slightly smaller number of channels so that the pulse widthmodulation stroke of the spectacles is somewhat extended (see FIG. 6 atthe top right of the diagram TR, to the right of the period T,identified by dashed flank and PWM. This extension of the PWM modulationstroke has the advantage that the spectacles may still be controlledwith analogous gray light in slight darkening (e.g. 0 Lux to 100 Lux).Even in a multichannel group application with invisible color marking,the spectacles may operate seamlessly in the direction of daytimedriving spectacles for analogous gray level control operation (asdescribed above).

One's own light source does not necessarily have to consist exclusivelyof high-performance RGB LED or RGB LASER, but may also consist ofhigh-power white-light LED which, for example, make up the mainproportion of one's own light, while the red-green-blue components areonly added for the purpose of coloring. This may be achieved by placingat least one or more RGB LED/LASER in the headlight/reflector next tothe white light LEDs.

In the short time slot T_(on) in which one's own spectacles are open, aspecific color is also emitted from the source of one's own light, inaddition to the white light pulse of the same area already shown in FIG.2 (middle line); The two modulation methods (white light and invisiblecolor marking) may be combined so that it remains a seamlesslyfunctioning overall system. A glare weapon (described further above) maystill be used in parallel to the invisible color marking described here,since this is only switched on when the spectacles of all the channels(Ch #1, 2, 3, etc.) are respectively closed (minimum transmission).

Optionally, as already described above, one's own light source may stillbe provided with a secret pulse hopping process, so that, for example,enemy units cannot decode the colors and cannot interfere with theentire system (spotlights with spectacles). Such an overall system may,of course, also be combined with the improved readability of displays(FIGS. 3 to 5).

Enhancing the Spatial Impression

Due to the limited human eye distance, objects at larger distancesappear increasingly one-dimensional, which limits their recognizability.An embodiment of the overall system according to the invention, whichcan provide a remedy here, is shown in FIG. 8. The eye distance or thepupil distance PD may be seen there, as well as an arbitrary object 1,which is, e.g. (depending on the range of one's own two separated lightsources S1(L) and S1(R), a few hundred meters away (even if, due to thelimited drawing size, it appears immediately in front of the spectaclesF). As described above, the spectacles F may regulate the brightnesscompletely separately from one another (i.e. two separatechannels/controls) in real time, taking into account intentionalbrightness differences (HDR vision) and/or physiologicalcharacteristics. It is, however, provided that the microcontroller MCmay also control two separate own light sources. These are arranged onthe right and left of the wearer of such a system, but at a greaterdistance DS1 (L-R) than the pupil distance PD of the wearer.

The mode of operation essentially corresponds to the RGB codingdescribed above. The liquid crystals of the spectacles are then openedin succession, but never simultaneously, as shown in the diagram TR(L)and TR (R). Since this is still a time-division multiplexing process,this is at the expense of the free channels (users) so that the systemmay only process half as many users in a group application if allparticipants wanted to use the 3D enhancement. In contrast to theabove-described RGB coding, however, a clearly distinguishable color isused per eye, e.g. yellow Y on the left and magenta M on the right.

For reasons of space, not every individual RGB channel is recorded inFIG. 8, but the color of the eye per eye channel L, R, is recognizablee.g. with the designation R1+G1 in the left channel IE(L). The lightpulse B1 (negated) follows in the dead time slot (both lenses areclosed) so that the external system appears in neutral white light toexternal third parties. In the right eye channel IE(R), for example,R1+B1 is added to M (magenta) in the dead time slot (both lenses areclosed), followed by a green pulse G1 (negated). The basic principle istherefore essentially identical to the RGB coding, the description ofwhich is further referred to above for further understanding. In FIG. 8,phase-modulation methods and xPSK methods already described on theright, beyond the period duration T, are also indicated.

Overall, this method leads to a better 3D perception, which is oftenreferred to as “2.5D” in the specialist literature, since one cannotlook completely behind the object.

The method also works with a mixture of modulated white light and RGBlight, so the system for mixing high frequency RGB LED/LASER moduleswith the above is compatible with somewhat slower white light LEDs.

The use of pure white light (i.e. without RGB sources) is also possible,in particular by increasing the distance between the sources DS1(LR)and/or by flashing perceptibly on either side of the left and rightchannels e.g. with 2 to 10 Hz), which is possible by appropriate controlof the self-illuminators and the spectacles.

Lidar

The system described so far may be so extended that light reflections offalling or ascending particles are hidden in the vicinity of the user.The problem occurs, for example, when driving at night in snowmobiles,where the snowflakes appear directly in front of the headlights becauseof the higher luminance, and obscure the view to a greater distance intothe depth of the space. This situation is shown in FIG. 9: At a distanced1, a reflection particle RP1 reflects the light gamma 1 towards thedriver.

If ultrasound pulses with pulse widths of a few nanoseconds aregenerated using special LASER or LED-based headlights, they may becontrolled according to the LIDAR/LaDAR principle (known from the priorart) over their lifetime by means of an equally fast shutter, in orderto be hidden/exposed to the users. For this purpose, the shutter lensesare so controlled that they only open at the (later) time t2 after thereflection of one's own headlight light on the spatially close particleRP1 has elapsed. The time axis in FIG. 9 is also to be understood as aspatial axis, since the distances (d=ct) and vice versa, result aftermultiplication by the constant light velocity c, and the correspondingtimes t are obtained by multiplying the sum of the light rays to givethe distance traveled divided by the constant light velocity c(t2=(d+d1)/c). After the light has traveled through the distance d(headlights to near particles) and d1 (near particles to spectacles),the time t2 has elapsed. However, if the shutter of the glasses opensonly after the time t2 has elapsed, as represented by TR (=on) in FIG.9, the light reflex is suppressed (supp. in FIG. 9) and is therefore notvisible.

Snowflakes or other particles (or mist) are not really invisible—theyappear rather as black dots—but the overall view into the depth of thespace is significantly improved due to reduced glare.

Own Light Recognition or Suppression

In the following, reference is made to FIGS. 10 and 11. A means ambientlight, U means extraneous light (unwanted, for example sunlight), and Wmeans own light (wanted). The distinction between U and W is as follows:

Since the microcontroller knows the points in time when it turns on itsown headlight W, it can query the outer photosensor, which is more thansufficiently fast, in a time slot shortly before (or shortly after) thelight pulse is transmitted—shown in FIG. 10 by N−1 or N+1, where N isthe N^(th) time slot of the transmitted light pulse. The followingapplies:A(t)=U(t)+W(t)  (1),

or discretely queried, where N=average value from a time slot Naccording to FIG. 10:A(N)=U(N)+W(N)  (2),

It is assumed that the interfering light does not change significantlyin time “shortly before or shortly after” the light pulse since theperiod between N−1 and N and N+1 is very small.U(N)=U(N−1)=U(N+1)  (3).

Other, e.g. more complex, experience-based averaging methods, or thesimple arithmetic mean may be selected. In any case, it is assumed thatwith this method, the interfering light value U (N) may be determined inthe time slot N with very high accuracy, provided that the ambient lightdoes not change very quickly and is not pulsed on its own. If oneassumes that the additional light from one's own beam is added to theambient light according to formula (1), then it is always greater thanthe ambient light in the neighboring time slots for A (N):A(N)>A(N−1) and A(N)>A(N+1)  (4).

Further, the normal return reflection of one's own light from remote andnot very reflective objects, i.e. from a normal scenery/environment(road, forest, field, in the house with large rooms), is rather smallcompared to a massive interfering light like strong sunlight, so that inthe extreme application of massive glare suppression, the followingapplies:W(N)<<U(N)  (6).

Often one speaks of a “delta”, which is added or omitted, for very smallquantities, so that the formula (1) may also be written as:Δ(N)=W(N)=A(N)−U(N)  (7).

Since, in a 70 Hz system, a Δ (N) is measured 70 times per second, thesevalues may in turn be averaged, e.g. over a meaningful small period oftime that is fast enough to adequately protect the eye with respect topotential emergency shutdown or down-regulation of one's own headlightswhen inadvertently looking into these headlights, e.g. over a period ofone-third or one-eighth of a second (x=e.g. 125 ms to 300 ms):

Mean value: MΔ (N)=MW (N)=e.g. flowing arithmetic mean of all W (N) inperiod T=t to t+x

This value may then be fed to a threshold value switch-off, or may beused for a more uniform (analog) down-regulation of one's ownheadlights.

EXAMPLE

S=Decision threshold for the emergency stop of one's own headlights

W (N)<S one's own headlights continues normally

W (N)>=S one's own headlights is switched off

As a rule-of-thumb formula, it may be said that an empiricallydetermined multiple M (multiplier) brighter appearing light serves as athreshold:S=M*U(N)  (8.1)

Or, if one does not want to refer to U (N), i.e. make independent ofso-called “scenarios”, such as excessive or no glare—then one simplyformulates self-referentially through multiples of W (N), e.g.:S=50% to 500% of the usual experience value of W(N)  (8.2).

In FIG. 10, it is assumed that the spectacles are in the “night mode” atthe control stop, so that all T_(on) times are equally narrow (e.g. 5%from the cycle time T). As a fully-filled black beam, the desired lightW (N) is shown in the graph in the center of the image. Since aback-reflection from an object is only very weak in normal cases, theblack beam is very small for the first two cycles. Irrespective of howmuch other interfering light U is added, exemplarily shown in the cycleT, the headlight light shown below remains at a constant intensity IE1,i.e. the headlight has already reached its intensity maxima with 16×IN,for example, which can not be increased further. If, however, the ratioof wanted to unwanted changes significantly, as shown in 2T (1:1), thenthe headlight intensity is reduced R. In the extreme case 3T, it may beswitched off (IE near zero).

Measurement with the IS Inner Sensor—In Combination with Short, One-OffFlashes

In addition, the delta, i.e. W(N), may be measured as an alternative tothe above method or for test purposes in a cycle T, as described above,in order then, exceptionally and exclusively only in the following cycle2T, the lamp S instead of the expected light pulse, thus deliberatelyexposing a light pulse as dropping out. Because such an individual“dropout” in cycle 2T is only one of a total of 70 light pulses persecond (in the case of a 70 Hz system), wherein this is not noticed bythe user or by external third parties.

If DC light is present, or if the glasses run synchronously with an ACinterfering light, then one may even assume that the interfering lightdoes not change very much in the very short time interval N−1, N, N+1remains largely constant from one cycle T until the next cycle 2T.U(n,T)=U(N,2T)  (9)

The internal sensor IS may then measure the delta W(N) in the cycle T,whereas in the cycle 2T this delta W(N) no longer appears because of theone's own switched-off headlight. Thus, it may occur in the same timeslot N, that an additional measurement of W(N) may be carried out bymeans of the internal sensor, without having to rely on theabove-explained measurement with the outside sensor (in the time slotsN−1, N, N+1. If one uses both methods (i.e. the internal sensor with thelight source and the light sensor once switched off) simultaneously,then the accuracy and reliability of the W(N) measurement may beincreased with this redundancy. Conflicting or illogical measurementsmay be determined and correspondingly corrected by simultaneousapplication of both methods via the microcontroller.

No DC backlight source, but accidental view into own source of light

It may be assumed in an extreme case that in the case of a very darknight and a disturbance-free view (e.g. completely alone in the forest),the following appliesU(N)=0

It follows from the above formula (2)=A (N)=U (N)+W (N) that thefollowing appliesA(n)=W(N)

In this case, the spectacles may also be completely open/transparent,while the headlamp may also be switched on permanently or apparently orlargely permanently (e.g. separated measuring pulses every 300 ms), sothat the delta measurements described above may also take place. Thespectacles are automatically transferred back into the usual PWMmodulation mode only when sudden disturbances occur.

Strong AC back-light source, e.g. electrical artificial light source,e.g. from the 50/60 H low-voltage network

The external sensor OS or OL, OR has three main characteristics:

-   -   1) Iratively much faster than industrial artificial light        (100-120 Hz) and may trigger this electronically and may easily        be detected by means of microcontrollers.    -   2) It is also standardized as a measuring device (it can output        values in lux or comparable light technical units or in        corresponding voltage equivalents) and is weighted with the        human eye sensitivity curve so that it can also measure light        intensity.    -   3) It is preferably, but not necessarily, identical to the        internal sensor IS so that the microcontroller may be        instantaneously measured in real-time “compensating        measurements” between the inside (through the LCD) and the        outside (bypassing the LCD).

If there is only one single dominant artificial light source, so that acyclic 100/120 Hz oscilltion can be detected by the external sensor, itdetermines the start time T_(Null) of the fundamental frequency of thePWM of the spectacles and the frequency of the PWM, wherein thebrightness maximum of the external light source is always exactly at thebeginning of a cycle and may be measured immediately by the externalsensor OS and also by the internal sensor IS. The internal sensor IS mayalso measure this maximum brightness of the artificial light sourcebecause at the beginning of a cycle, the spectacles are always “open”,i.e. the liquid crystal cell is transparent. Thus, the external sensorOS and the internal sensor IS basically measure the same light, but withthe slight difference that the transparent LCD is located in front ofthe internal sensor IS, so that IS receives a little less light—i.e.mius the temperature-dependent and aging-dependent transmission in thecontinuous state—e.g. 50% less with crossed polarizers(polarizer-analyzer position).

Furthermore, the internal and external sensors IS1 and OS1 are alsoarranged spatially very closely on an imaginary axis, e.g. not more than3 mm apart—also called the “measuring pairs No.1” (MP1). Thus, evenspatial frequencies OF (in the broadest sense “stripe pattern”) of OF>3mm may in no way lead to measurement errors. In addition, a furthermeasuring pair MP2 consisting of IS2 and OS2 exists in each caseorthogonally to the aforementioned measuring pair MP1, so thatcheckerboard patterns, i.e. spatial frequencies, which run perpendicularto the aforementioned spatial frequencies, may be correspondinglydetected if these are more than 3 mm. Both measuring pairs (MP1 and MP2)provide values, which may be evaluated by the microcontroller in such away that “geometric mean values” may be formed according to theimaginary triangle between the pupil centerpoint position and the sensorarrangement.

Integration within One Cycle

The internal sensor IS measures the light incident through the LC andintegrates this light during an idle initialization phase in the veryfirst cycle of 100 or 120 Hz in which the spectacles remain completelyopen (see FIG. 11). Since it is only a single cycle of a synchronous 100or 120 Hz system (i.e. from further subsequent 109 or 119 controlledcycles), the human eye does not perceive this. However, a firstintegration result of the cycle T is present.

If the sensor IS forms an integral via, for example, a constant (DCinterfering light), then a straight ascending line (see FIG. 11) resultswhich, after exceeding a setpoint value threshold (setpoint trigger),causes the complete closing of the spectacles (hard on-off keying viaPWM). This also has the advantage that a decision and reaction is stillcarried out within a respective cycle T without the T+1 or T−1 or otherfurther cycles having to be included, as would normally be necessary inthe case of an “analogous mathematical calculation in the frequencydomain of an APID controller”. Therefore, no Fourier transformation isnecessary—neither FFT nor FT, DFT, etc.

The so-called control is thus “hard” in this case and reacts in realtime already in cycle T to a setpoint value—also called “microscopiccontrol”.

The so-called “macroscopic control”:

However, this microscopic integration value from the N^(th) cycle may bestored in a volatile intermediate memory so that it may be used as a“floating/sliding mean value correction value”, i.e. for furthersuccessive integration values. As a macroscopic integrationvalue—approximately within a quarter or third of a 100 Hz or 120 Hzcycle (i.e. within imperceptible fractions of a second).

Thus, the regulation always reacts correctly in the case of fluctuatingartificial light. FIG. 11 shows the initialization phase with a stillunknown output or unknown outer brightness (weighting factor beta), thenin cycle 2, followed by a cycle (weighting factor alpha) normalized to 1or maximal brightness and modulation stroke featuring the integral(T_(off)) when the target value Thres is reached.

In the third cycle, for example, it is shown how the outer brightnesshas increased and also fluctuates. The corresponding integral (graph inthe center of the image) now runs steeper so that the setpoint valueThres is reached more quickly and consequently the spectacles closeearlier in time—T_(OFF) is thus longer than in the cycle before. Theintegral values are set to zero at the end of each cycle so that eachcycle is controlled in real-time in its transmittance TR.

Scenario: Several strong AC backlight sources, e.g. electricalartificial light sources, e.g. from various networks, so that frequencymixtures are present.

A mixture of various superimposing frequencies may cause the externalsensor to no longer be able to synchronize with a certain interferencefrequency. However, this may also have advantages, since a mixture inthe oscillogram is represented as “noise”, which hardly has more valleysand misfires of extraneous light than results from a stable “groundnoise” due to the superimpositions. In this case, the spectacles ormicrocontrollers will abort the attempt to synchronize and simply switchto a typical preset operating frequency, e.g. to 70 Hz, in order to workthere unintentionally according to the above integration scheme.

Scenario: Several strong pulsed back-light sources, e.g. electrical LEDtype light sources, e.g. such as the present or similar systems

Due to the immediate integration within a cycle, the spectacles mayclose as soon as a threshold is reached. Since the dynamic range and themeasuring speed of the external and internal sensors are always fasterand better than the human eye, extreme intensities and harmfulperformances may also be avoided, such as, for example, extremely shortlight pulses of high energy, such as, e.g. from pulsed Q-switch lasersor pulsed LEDs.

The human eye can no longer perceive and react from a certain growingintensity with pulses, which are becoming shorter and shorter at thesame time, as the cornea and retina are in danger of being harmed.

Reaction of the Spectacles in Case of Doubt:

The spectacles therefore tend to “close” (eye protection) at highintensities—while they tend to be “open” in the case of low intensities,but in the case of chaotic unspecifiable frequency patterns, which maynot be synchronized, a kind of “average brightness” is determined byintegrating and averaging over several cycles T (e.g. over 300 ms), asif it were noise or a nearly uniform source—whereas, however, it isbasically in the PWM night vision and dark range (5% to approx. 20% openPWM time slot with appropriately pulsed spotlight).

According to an embodiment, a system for dazzling a living being, anoptical sensor or a camera is presented herein, the system comprising:

spectacles for a wearer with at least one eye, with

at least one spectacle lens;

wherein the at least one spectacle lens has a liquid crystal cell (LC),the transmission of which may be varied by a suitable control;

wherein the liquid crystal cell (LC) is so designed that thetransmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) may be switchedbetween high and low transmission states; and with

means for controlling the times of the state of high transmission(T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC);

a light source for dazzling a living being, an optical sensor or acamera,

which illuminates during the times of the low transmission state(T_(off)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC);

wherein the regulation or control of the liquid crystal cell (LC) andthe light source for dazzling is so formed

that the temporal position of the times of the high transmission state(T_(on)) within a period of times of the high transmission state(T_(on)) and times of the low transmission state (T_(off)) may bealtered continuously or discontinuously; and/or

that the duration of a period of times of the high transmission state(T_(on)) and times of the low transmission state (T_(off)) may bealtered continuously or discontinuously;

wherein the changes are determined by a secret coding key.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized by

a second light source (S);

means for controlling or regulating the lighting times and the luminousintensity of the second light source (S) such that it illuminates duringthe times of the state of high transmission (T_(on)) of the liquidcrystal cell (LC).

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the second light source is a display.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the spectacles further comprise at least one sensor (IL, IR) formeasuring the brightness of the visible light incident on the at leastone sensor;

wherein the at least one sensor is arranged on the eye-side of thespectacle lens;

wherein the at least one sensor measures the brightness through the atleast one spectacle lens;

the spectacles further comprise a closed-loop control circuit (MC) forregulating the transmission of the liquid crystal cell (LC);

wherein a setpoint value is preset for the brightness at the eye of thespectacle wearer;

wherein the control circuit takes the brightness measured by the sensoras the actual value.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the sensor (IL, IR) comprises

an imaging system with a camera or

at least 3 sensors which span a coordinate system, or

a compound eye;

the spectacles further comprise an eye tracker (ET) capable ofdetermining the viewing direction of the eye;

the sensor can determine the brightness of the visible light which isincident upon it from the viewing direction of the eye determined by theeye tracker (ET); and

the control circuit takes the brightness measured by the sensor in theviewing direction of the eye as the actual value.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the liquid crystal cell (LC) is so designed that it can change itstransmission from 90% to 10% and from 10% to 90% in a maximum of 10 ms.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the spectacle frame seals the at least one eye of the spectacle weareragainst the ambient light in a light-tight manner.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the nominal value of the control circuit prescribes a brightness at theeye of 20 to 400 lx.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the brightness of the ambient light is derived from the setpoint valueand a control signal of the control circuit.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

at least one further brightness sensor (OL, OR) is arranged on the sideof the spectacles facing away from the eye (external sensor) anddetermines the brightness of the ambient light.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized

wherein the setpoint value of the control circuit may be varied as afunction of the brightness of the ambient light; and

wherein the change in the setpoint value is slower by a factor of atleast 10 than the control of the transmission of the liquid crystalcell.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the setpoint value is changed in preset steps;

wherein the stepwise change of the setpoint value is slower than thecontrol of the transmission of the liquid crystal cell by a factor of atleast 100, and

has hysteresis in its course.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the control is so designed that it reacts to extreme brightness valueswithin 10 μs to one second such that the liquid crystal cell (LC) is setto the state of low transmission.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized by

two spectacle lenses for two eyes of a spectacle wearer;

two eye-side sensors for measuring the brightness of the visible lightincident on the respective eye; and by

a control circuit for each eye.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the setpoint values for the two eyes differ from one another by 1% to60%.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

when regulating the brightness of the visible light incident on an eyethe regulation of the brightness for the other eye is taken intoaccount.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized by

light sources arranged on the side of the spectacles facing away fromthe eye;

wherein the light sources are controlled as a function of the viewingdirection of the spectacle wearer.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the measured values of the sensors and/or setpoint values of the controlcircuits and/or the brightness of the environment derived therefrom, areconnected to a geo-coordinate signal of a geo-coordinate receiver andrecorded.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the at least one spectacle lens has a further liquid crystal cell, thetransmission of which may be varied by a suitable control,

wherein the further liquid crystal cell is arranged behind or in frontof the liquid crystal cell in the viewing direction.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a method for dazzling aliving being, an optical sensor or a camera is presented herein. Themethod comprises:

spectacles for a wearer with at least one eye are provided;

wherein the spectacles have at least one spectacle lens;

wherein the at least one spectacle lens has a liquid crystal cell (LC),the transmission of which may be varied by a suitable control;

wherein the liquid crystal cell (LC) is so designed that thetransmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) may be switchedbetween high and low transmission states;

wherein the spectacles further comprise means for controlling the highertransmission state (T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC);

a light source is provided for dazzling a living being, an opticalsensor or a camera,

which illuminates during the times of the low transmission state(T_(off)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC);

wherein the regulation or control of the liquid crystal cell (LC) andthe light source for dazzling is so formed

that the temporal position of the times of the high transmission state(T_(on)) within a period of times of the high transmission state(T_(on)) and times of the low transmission state (T_(off)) may bealtered continuously or discontinuously; and/or

that the duration of a period of times of the high transmission state(T_(on)) and times of the low transmission state (T_(off)) may bealtered continuously or discontinuously;

wherein the changes are determined by a secret coding key.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a system for the colorcoding of objects in the field of view of a plurality of spectaclewearers is provided herein, the system having:

a pair of spectacles per spectacle wearer, with

respectively at least one spectacle lens;

wherein the respective at least one spectacle lens comprises a liquidcrystal cell (LC), the transmission of which may be varied by a suitablecontrol;

wherein the liquid crystal cells (LC) are so designed that thetransmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cells (LC) may be switchedbetween high and low transmission states; and with

means for regulating or controlling the times of the high transmission(T_(on)) states of the liquid crystal cells (LC) such that therespective liquid crystal cells (LC) are set to high transmission(T_(on)) states at different times; and with

one RGB light source (S1, S2, S3) per spectacle wearer;

means for controlling or regulating the luminance times, the color andthe intensity of the RGB light source (S1, S2, S3) such that

the RGB light source (S1) for a first spectacle wearer illuminates witha first color at a time of the state of high transmission (T_(on)) ofthe liquid crystal cell (LC) of their spectacles; and that

the RGB light source (S2) for a second spectacle wearer illuminates at atime of high transmission (T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) ofthe spectacles of the second spectacle wearer with a second colordifferent from the first.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

in the times of the state of low transmission (T_(off)) of therespective spectacles, the associated RGB light sources (S1, S2, S3)emit those colors that are necessary in order to produce, in a temporalmean, a white color impression in persons not wearing any of thespectacles.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the liquid crystal cell (LC) of a first spectacle wearer has anattenuated but non-zero transmission in a time of the state of hightransmission (T_(on)) of a second spectacle wearer.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the color in which the RGB light source for the first spectacle wearerilluminates at a time of the state of high transmission (T_(on)) of theliquid crystal cell (LC) of their spectacles may be freely definedthrough an arbitrary intensity value between 0% and 100% of a colorcomponent of each primary color of its RGB light source (S1);

while the missing fraction to 100% is emitted for each of the threeprimary colors of their RGB light source (S1) at the associated time ofthe low transmission state (T_(off)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC).

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the spectacles

each comprise at least one sensor (IL, IR) for measuring the brightnessof the visible light incident on them;

wherein the respective at least one sensor (IL, IR) is arranged on theeye-side of the respective spectacle lens;

wherein the respective at least one sensor (IL, IR) measures thebrightness through the at least one spectacle lens;

and with a closed-loop control circuit (MC) each for controlling thetransmission of the respective liquid crystal cell (LC);

wherein a setpoint value is preset for the brightness at the eye of therespective spectacle wearer;

wherein the control circuit (MC) takes the brightness measured by the atleast one sensor (IL, IR) as the actual value.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized by

an additional LED that can address the sensor in order to check theproper functioning of the liquid crystal cell of the respectivespectacles for safety reasons.

According to an embodiment, a method for the color coding of objects inthe field of view of a plurality of spectacle wearers is providedherein. The method comprises the following steps:

each spectacle wearer wears spectacles, with

in each case at least one spectacle lens;

wherein the respective at least one spectacle lens comprises a liquidcrystal cell (LC), the transmission of which may be varied by a suitablecontrol;

wherein the liquid crystal cells (LC) are so designed that thetransmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cells (LC) may be switchedbetween high and low transmission states; and

wherein the times of the high transmission states (T_(on)) of therespective liquid crystal cells (LC) are set to high transmission states(T_(on)) at different times;

an RGB light source (S1, S2, S3) is provided for each spectacle wearer;

the luminance times, the color and the intensity of the RGB lightsources (S1, S2, S3) are controlled such that

the RGB light source (S1) for a first spectacle wearer illuminates witha first color at a time of the state of high transmission (T_(on)) ofthe liquid crystal cell (LC) of their spectacles; and that

the RGB light source (S2) for a second spectacle wearer illuminates at atime of high transmission (T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) ofthe spectacles of the second spectacle wearer with a second color thatis different from the first.

According to an embodiment, a system for enhancing the spatialimpression of an object is provided herein, comprising:

spectacles for a wearer with at least two eyes, a right (E(R)) and aleft (E(L)) eye, with

one spectacle lens in front of each of the two eyes;

wherein each spectacle lens comprises a liquid crystal cell (LC(L),LC(R)), the transmission of which may be varied by a suitable control;

wherein the liquid crystal cells (LC(L), LC(R)) are so designed that thetransmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cells may be switched betweenhigh and low transmission states, respectively; and with

means for controlling or regulating the times of the high transmissionstates (T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cells (LC(L), LC(R)); and with

two light sources (S1(L), S1 R)) each associated with one eye;

wherein the two light sources emit different colors, and

wherein the stereoscopic base (DS1) of the light sources is greater thanthe eye distance (PD); and with

means for controlling or regulating the lighting times of the lightsources (S1(L), S1(R)) in such a way

that the light source (S1(R)) associated with the right eye (E(R))illuminates during a high transmission state (T_(on)) of the liquidcrystal cell (LC(R)) of the right eye,

while the light source (S1(L)) associated with the left eye (E(L)) doesnot illuminate, and

the liquid crystal (LC(L)) of the left eye is set to low transmission;

and vice versa.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the color emitted by the respective light sources at the times of thehigh transmission states (T_(on)) is supplemented during the associatedtimes of the low transmission (T_(off)) states to give a white colorimpression.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the two light sources are amplitude-modulated with a predeterminedfrequency which may be perceived by the human eye.

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the spectacles

comprise at least one sensor (IL, IR) for measuring the brightness ofthe visible light incident thereon;

wherein the at least one sensor (IL, IR) is arranged on the eye-side ofthe at least one spectacle lens;

wherein the at least one sensor (IL, IR) measures the brightness throughthe at least one spectacle lens; and

with at least one closed-loop control circuit (MC) for regulating thetransmission of the respective liquid crystal cell (LC);

wherein at least one setpoint value is preset for the brightness at theeye of the spectacle wearer;

wherein the control circuit (MC) takes the brightness measured by the atleast one sensor as the actual value.

According to an embodiment of an invention, a method for enhancing thespatial impression of an object, comprising the following steps, isprovided herein:

spectacles are provided for a wearer with at least two eyes, a right(E(R)) and a left (E(L)) eye, wherein the spectacles

have a respective spectacle lens in front of each of the two eyes;

wherein each spectacle lens comprises a liquid crystal cell (LC(L),LC(R)), the transmission of which may be varied by a suitable control;

wherein the liquid crystal cells (LC(L), LC(R)) are so designed that thetransmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cells may be respectivelyswitched between high and low transmission states;

the times of the high transmission states (T_(on)) of the liquid crystalcells (LC(L), LC(R)) are controlled;

two light sources (S1(L), S1(R)) are further provided, each beingassociated with one eye;

wherein the two light sources emit different colors, and

wherein the stereoscopic base (DS1) of the light sources is greater thanthe eye distance (PD);

the lighting times of the light sources (S1(L), S1(R)) are controlledsuch

that the light source (S1(R)) associated with the right eye (E(R))illuminates during a high transmission state (T_(on)) of the liquidcrystal cell (LC(R)) of the right eye,

while the light source (S1(L)) associated with the left eye (E(L)) doesnot illuminate, and

the liquid crystal (LC(L)) of the left eye is set to low transmission;

and vice versa.

According to an embodiment of an invention, a system for improving theview of an area to be monitored spatially by means of glare suppressionis provided herein, the system having:

spectacles, with

at least one spectacle lens;

wherein the at least one spectacle lens comprises a liquid crystal cell(LC) whose transmission (TR) may be varied by a suitable control;

wherein the liquid crystal cell (LC) is so designed that thetransmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) may be switchedbetween high and low transmission states; and with

means for regulating or controlling the times of the state of hightransmission (T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC);

a pulsed light source (S) which emits light pulses;

wherein the light source (S) is so designed that it can generate lightpulses whose temporal duration is shorter than the time that the lightof the light source needs to traverse the area to be monitored spatiallyin the viewing direction of the wearer; and with

means for controlling or regulating the times of the state of hightransmission (T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) that are able totemporally arrange the times of the state of high transmission (T_(on))of the liquid crystal cell so that only the backscattering signal of thelight pulse from the area to be monitored spatially is transmitted bythe liquid crystal cell (LC).

According to an embodiment, the system is characterized in that

the spectacles

comprise at least one sensor (IL, IR) for measuring the brightness ofthe visible light incident thereon;

wherein the at least one sensor (IL, IR) is arranged on the eye-side ofthe respective spectacle lens;

the at least one sensor (IL, IR) measures the brightness through the atleast one spectacle lens; and

with at least one closed-loop control circuit (MC) for controlling thetransmission of the respective liquid crystal cell (LC);

wherein a setpoint value is preset for the brightness at the eye of thespectacle wearer;

wherein the control circuit (MC) takes the brightness measured by the atleast one sensor (IL, IR) as the actual value.

According to an embodiment of an invention, a method for improving theview of an area to be monitored spatially by means of glare suppressionis provided herein, the method comprising the following:

spectacles are provided, wherein the spectacles

comprise at least one spectacle lens;

wherein the at least one spectacle lens comprises a liquid crystal cell(LC), the transmission (TR) of which may be varied by a suitablecontrol;

wherein the liquid crystal cell (LC) is so formed that the transmission(TR) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) may be switched between high andlow transmission states;

the times of the state of high transmission (T_(on)) of the liquidcrystal cell (LC) are controlled;

a pulsed light source (S) which emits light pulses is provided;

wherein the light source (S) is so designed that it can generate lightpulses whose temporal duration is shorter than the time that the lightof the light source needs to traverse the area to be monitored spatiallyin the viewing direction of the wearer;

further, the times of the state of high transmission (T_(on)) of theliquid crystal cell are so arranged temporally that only thebackscattering signal of the light pulse from the area to be monitoredspatially is transmitted by the liquid crystal cell (LC).

Thus, spectacles are proposed. The spectacles have a spectacle lens witha liquid crystal cell LC, the transmission TR of which may be switchedbetween transmitting and blocking. Furthermore, the spectacles have aneye tracker ET, which can determine the viewing direction of the eye.Furthermore, at least one sensor IL, IR is provided to measure thebrightness of the visible light incident thereon, wherein the sensor isarranged on the eye-side of the spectacle lens and measures thebrightness by the at least one spectacle lens in a spatially resolvedmanner. The sensor can determine the brightness of the visible lightfrom the viewing direction of the eye determined with the eye tracker.The spectacle also has a closed-loop control circuit for the control ofthe transmission of the liquid crystal cell, wherein a setpoint valuefor the brightness is preset at the eye, and wherein the control circuittakes the brightness measured by the sensor in the viewing direction ofthe eye as the actual value.

CITED LITERATURE Cited Patent Literature

-   DE 10 2012 217 326 A1-   DE 101 34 770 A1-   DE 2 001 086 A,-   EP 0 813 079 A2-   U.S. Pat. No. 2,066,680 A-   U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,256-   WO 2013/143 998 A2

Cited Non-Patent Literature

Adrian, W. and Bhanji, A.: “Fundamentals of disability glare. A formulato describe stray light in the eye as a function of the glare angle andage.” Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Glare, 1991,Orlando, Fla., pp. 185-194.

Douglas Mace, Philip Garvey, Richard J. Porter, Richard Schwab, WernerAdrian: Counter-measures for Reducing the Effects of Headlight Glare;Prepared for: The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, Washington, D.C.,December 2001

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gert Hauske: “Systemtheorie der visuellen Wahrnehmung”,Teubner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1994

The invention claimed is:
 1. System for visibility enhancement by glaresuppression with: spectacles for a wearer with at least one eye, with atleast one spectacle lens; wherein the at least one spectacle lens has aliquid crystal cell (LC), the transmission (TR) of which may be variedby a suitable control; wherein the liquid crystal cell (LC) is sodesigned that the transmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) maybe switched between high and low transmission states; and with means forcontrolling or regulating the times of the state of high transmission(T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC); and with a light source (S)comprising means for controlling the lighting times and the luminousintensity of the light source (S) such that it illuminates during thetimes of the state of high transmission (T_(on)) of the liquid crystalcell (LC); wherein the temporal integral of the product of the luminousintensity of the light source (S) and the transmission (TR) of theliquid crystal cell (LC) remains constant within a predeterminedtolerance upon a change in the times of the state of high transmission(T_(on)); wherein the regulation or control of the liquid crystal cell(LC) and of the light source (S) is so formed that the temporal positionof the times of the high transmission state (T_(on)) within a period oftimes of the high transmission state (T_(on)) and times of the lowtransmission state (T_(off)) may be altered continuously ordiscontinuously; and/or that the duration of a period of times of thehigh transmission state (T_(on)) and times of the low transmission state(T_(off)) may be altered continuously or discontinuously; wherein thechanges are determined by a secret coding key.
 2. System according toclaim 1, wherein the spectacles further comprise at least one sensor(IL, IR) for measuring the brightness of the visible light incident onthe sensor; wherein the at least one sensor (IL, IR) is arranged on theeye-side of the spectacle lens; wherein the at least one sensor (IL, IR)measures the brightness through the at least one spectacle lens; thespectacles further comprise a closed-loop control circuit (MC) forregulating the transmission of the liquid crystal cell (LC); wherein asetpoint value is preset for the brightness at the eye of the spectaclewearer; wherein the control circuit takes the brightness measured by thesensor as the actual value.
 3. System according to claim 2, wherein theat least one sensor (IL, IR) comprises an imaging system with a cameraor at least three sensors which span a coordinate system, or a compoundeye; the spectacles further comprise an eye tracker (ET) capable ofdetermining the viewing direction of the eye; the at least one sensorcan determine the brightness of the visible light which is incident uponit from the viewing direction of the eye determined by the eye tracker(ET); and the control circuit takes the brightness measured by thesensor in the viewing direction of the eye as the actual value. 4.System according to claim 1, wherein a second light source for thedazzling of a living being, an optical sensor or a camera, whichilluminates during the times of the low transmission (T_(off)) state ofthe liquid crystal cell (LC).
 5. System according to claim 1, whereinthe light source is a light source for the dazzling of a living being,an optical sensor or a camera.
 6. System according to claim 1, whereinthe light source is a display.
 7. Method for visual enhancement by glaresuppression, comprising the following steps: spectacles for a wearerwith at least one eye are provided, wherein the spectacles have at leastone spectacle lens; wherein the at least one spectacle lens has a liquidcrystal cell (LC), the transmission (TR) of which may be varied by asuitable control; wherein the liquid crystal cell (LC) is so selectedthat the transmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cell (LC) may beswitched between high and low transmission states; wherein the times ofthe high transmission (T_(on)) states of the liquid crystal cell (LC)are controlled or regulated; a light source (S) is provided; wherein theluminance times and the intensity of the light source (S) are controlledor regulated such that the latter illuminates during the times of thestate of high transmission (T_(on)) of the liquid crystal cell (LC),wherein the temporal integral of the product of the intensity of thelight source (S) and the transmission (TR) of the liquid crystal cell(LC) remains constant within a predetermined tolerance upon a change inthe times of the state of high transmission (T_(on)); wherein theregulation or control of the liquid crystal cell (LC) and of the lightsource (S) is so formed that the temporal position of the times of thestate of high transmission (T_(on)) within a period of times of the hightransmission state (T_(on)) and times of the low transmission state(T_(off)) may be changed continuously or discontinuously; and/or thatthe duration of a period of times of the high transmission state(T_(on)) and times of the low transmission state (T_(off)) may bealtered continuously or discontinuously; wherein the changes aredetermined by a secret coding key.